Digital Contact
by Bolo42
Summary: The Infinity Brigade gets down to business when some valuable equipment gets spread across the various Digital Worlds. Canon story in my original sci-fi universe that involves the dA group DigimonZoneFans. Due for a major re-write eventually.
1. Whoops!

~I don't own the Digimon, or Marathon franchises, nor the many other fan-characters that appear in this entire story. All characters and concepts belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 1

Whoops!

"Now would you please explain, again, what happened to the ansible drone prototype? No, never mind, just play the footage again." Commander Edwards held his head in frustration, he had the lucky misfortune of being in command of the research facility. Strange occurrences were annoyingly common, they're bound to happen anytime you work with advanced technologies; today was one of those days. The facility had been operational for roughly 40 years, and this was the first major incident in a long time. On the screen the drone vanished again in a flash of light, with no trace of its destination.

"Commander, I've isolated the root of the power fluctuations that accompanied the incident." said Leela, as her consciousness streamed from her digital core on Deimos to the base, nestled into the hills and craters near Claritas Rupes.

"Really? That's the first good news I've heard all day! Bring it up on screen."

The first video loop was now accompanied by another, a robot could be seen fiddling with some connections.

"Directly prior to the incident Bot 32 was investigating the Prime Artifact's subsystems. It noticed a previously unidentified section that had been running on minimal power for some time due to a frayed connection. Upon its repair the section regained full power and began to initiate new subroutines, causing the artifact to send out power fluctuations that traveled to directly beneath the prototype before returning with a different signal to the artifact." The computer explained with the aid of some diagrams.

"So the Artifact _teleported_ the drone somewhere!?" said Edwards, scrunchinghis 'brows, his hand on his forehead, as more thoughts cascaded through his skull.

"That is unknown at the present, but it currently seems to be the most probable hypothesis."

"Well that seems to explain Q-ring experiment results a bit... but that still leaves several questions unanswered, namely where did the drone go and how did it get there?"

"Commander!" the ComNet squawked.

"Yes?" Edwards turned his attention to the feed now open on his headset.

"We're picking up a signal from the ansible, we think it might be a feed from the drone, Sir! I'm forwarding it to you now."

"Excellent," he said as turned his focus to the computer screen. A city could be seen in the distance, filled with large buildings and densely packed bazaars. An explosion occurred, throwing large amounts of debris and dust into the air, large figures could be seen moving in the haze, many creatures of all shapes and sizes running away in panic, some resembling lizards and saurians, others birds, beasts and robots. They sported a variety of extremities, including wings, tails, arms and blades, which blended with their bodies in not always a graceful manner. In other words: a large assortment of monsters.

The commander merely watched in silence.

The view zoomed in with the whir of a camera lens, Fennec live feed 01 3/25/2090 3:34 SST, read the stamp in the corner. The creatures could be seen more clearly now.

"Why do those things look so familiar..." he muttered.

"They seem to be Digimon, Commander."

"Are you telling me that this feed is coming from within one of the Digital VR's? Please tell me this is a joke..."

"Negative Commander, location does not correspond with anywhere within the DigiNet."

He sat in his office chair and brooded. _If the location was nowhere on the DigiNet, _he thought, _then these were not the Digimon his world knew, merely existing on computer systems..._

The haze on the display faded away to reveal several individuals directing Digimon in a fierce battle.

"...and things just keep getting more complicated," Edwards sighed. He closed his eyes briefly as he pondered; they snapped open as he stood. "Leela buzz the Councilor," he said, his tone growing more serious now.

"Paging Daneel... Paging all relevant units..." She echoed through the network.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you want to go ahead with this, Sir?"<p>

"Positive, besides, I've got a lot of toys and tricks up my sleeve - and I'd actually like to try them out," the figure in light power armor replied from the hatch of the Lightly Armed Vehicle.

"If you say so sir, but there's only one of you."

"I'll keep that in mind," he paused a moment, "Durandal, seeing as you're eavesdropping, I'll give you the honors."

"Heh, if you say so," said a voice.

The LAV disappeared with a flash.

" I'll just go and get to work," said Edwards, trying to take the day in stride.

"Probably a good idea, couldn't hurt to be a little more prepared..." teased the voice.

Anyone who'd ever met Durandal wouldn't have needed to see his avatar's facial expression to tell there was a grin plastered across his being - one could tell that he was clearly enjoying himself merely from his tone.

* * *

><p>As you may very well be aware - the Digital World is a big place, such that there are even multiple versions of it and Earth within its collective whole. In turn, these are made up of zones - and there are many, many multitudes of zones within the entirety of the Digital World. At the approximate center of this inter-dimensional expanse is the limbo-esque Zone-Capital, the heart of the World Server where resides the core of ENIAC, one of the host computers of the Digital World. Here there exists the headquarters of an organization tasked with safeguarding the stability of the servers on the expansive network: the Zoners, comprised of Tamers of every type imaginable, some of which you may know very well...<p>

Izzy, bearer of the crest of knowledge, and the Zoner's lead tech-head was, as usual, at his workstation, trying to make order of the never-ending stream of data that flows makes up the digital plane. Computers in various states of assembly, piles of papers and reports, tools ranging from a soldering iron to a laser, among other gizmos and gadgets lay sprawled across the room. All of sudden, a beeping eminated from the main display, red flashing across its edges, grabbing his attention.

"Eh?" startled, his fingers flew across the keyboard. "Hmm... that's odd," he murmered.

"What is it Izzy?" the buzzing of wings announced Tentomon's entry into the room. "Pointdexter again?" he referred to the child-scientist, wanted for crimes against human and Digimon alike.

"It looks like something else entirely..." Izzy replied, as he sifted through windows on the computer monitor. "I'm getting odd signals reverberating through several zones."

"Could it be someone else on our list of nemesis then?" Tentomon's head skewed as he too pondered what else could be causing the disturbance.

"No, these signals don't seem to correlate with any of our ordinary problems."

"If our problems are ordinary, I'd sure hate to meet an extraordinary one," the flying, electric beetle said with a nervous sweat-drop.

"In fact... they're from nowhere within our database..."

Tentomon's antennae perked up in alarm, perpendicular to his head. "Here we go again," he sighed.

* * *

><p>In a dark room a lone figure sat silhouetted by a conglomeration of glowing computer monitors.<p>

"Hmm... another anomaly," he paused a mere moment for contemplation. "So the plot thickens..."

A tall figure steps out from the shadows.

"Do you wish for me to investigate Master?"

"Has the recovery team reached the object?"

"They're nearly there, sir."

"Then no, why should we go to them, when they will inevitably come to us?"

* * *

><p>Notes: This is quasi-canon with the Digimon Zone Fan group on dA. You will doubtlessly notice many other similar references throughout this story, needless to say, it is because I was inspired by them, and I will do my best to explain them if there are any questions on the matter. Thanks to Crazyeight for the editing advice.<p> 


	2. A Heroes Tale, meets Daneel

Chapter 2

A Heroes Tale meets Daneel

The man blinked underneath his helmet. What a fortunate turn of events, he breathed in, letting the fresh air enter through the mouthpiece. It smelled..., he thought, it smelled like home... He took in the view and noticed that the small knoll he stood on was situated in the middle of the meadow, which itself was bordered by a deciduous forest, along with a stream and pond. It was wonderful, and he felt all of it.

His solitude was interrupted by the message that crackled in over the comm.

"HQ here," the voice said, "we're getting some odd feedback from the data matrices, something about underused render capabilities..."

"Well that explains the new functions that popped up on my D-Vice," the lone figure responded.

"Hmm..., it must be seeping through the network again... I'll keep you updated, over and out."

Again alone, he unlatched the helmet and exposed his face to the world, letting the wind rustle through his hair as he continued to survey the terrain - before turning his attention to the device currently mounted on his left arm.

"Now let's see if this does what I think it will..." he said to no one in particular.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" a voice chimed from the device.

" 'course I am", he replied as he pushed the button.

"Wait a sec-ahhh!"the voice released a cry of surprise - a field of light streamed from the device, taking the form of two Digimon. One was obviously a Gizamon, while the other had a very saurien build. A dull thud was heard with a resounding "oof!" as the two hit the ground.

"ZZZ-fwuh?" The Gizamon awoke with a snort.

"That's funny, I don't remember putting you in there..." he scratched his head, as the Gizamon dashed off into the nearby pond.

"Well you know what this means..." said the other, as it rose, shaking itself off.

"Yeah," the man replied, his face joyous at the turn of events, yet somehow unsurprised. "Things just got a whole lot more fun - how about you go take a quick stretch before we get to work?"

The cynogdont like Digimon took off across the field, no other answer needed. His partner snickered a little as the rustling and squawks of Biyomon reached his ears, but the beeps coming in from the Comm system caused him to perk up.

"What is it?" he said.

"I've managed to locate the relative location of one of the crates."

"What's the catch?"

"You're going to have to travel a bit more in order to retrieve them all."

"I'm hoping we'll at least be provided a map this time..."

"I'm uploading it to you now, as well as a patch that should help you utilize the artifact's abilities so you get where you need to go. The nearest target reality that's likely to contain one of the crates is highlighted."

"How nice of Thoth to oblige us like that, any progress on isolating the incident's catalyst?"

"Still working on that, Leela thinks her 'brother' might have something to do with it, and the techs are still trying to sort all the data, I'll let you know as soon as we're done going over the logs."

"Roger," the figure said before ending the conversation and turning. Now facing the LAV, he punched some commands into his device, letting forth a grumble of satisfaction.

Momentarily, an odd noise arose, a mix between the roar of a combustion engine, and the whirr of an electric motor could be heard, resulting in a distinct humming noise that grew louder as a robot pulled up. It had six wheels and a body similar to its larger cousin, but without any noticeable weapons. A flat triangular sensor head stood atop a pole, with a camera of sorts in the center and two on the sides.

"Fennec Directive Confirm," the man commanded the vehicle.

"Unit will explore and seek out displaced objects that correspond to roster at site arrival, without causing unwarranted disruption to the locality," the robot replied.

"Fennec Directive CogRec Affirm, Instruct Directive Pursue," the man said, satisfied by the response as again he tapped on his device. The robot disappeared in a flash of light and a crackle of energy. "Now to get ready... "

* * *

><p>The Digimon Heroes, saviours of New York City and the world from the threat of the recently deposed Superimon. As is usual for groups of DigidestinedTamers, there are eight team members: Robert, his brother Joey, Chris, Jermaine, Eva - Robert's girlfriend, Mike, Kevin and Rixu. Then, of course their partners: Renamon, who happens to be queen of their version of the digital world, Lopmon, Angelomon, Commandramon - who has yet to learn how to ease his military bearing despite the best efforts of his tamer, Gatomon, Veemon, and Monodramon. Unfortunately the recent period of peace that they've been enjoying has been unintentionally disturbed by the arrival of the Zoners to their reality. Now, the members of both groups, have combined together and left to deal with problem posed by the Zone crystals - compressed fragments of interdimensional energy, that popped up following their successful defeat of the first threat. No one was there to see Fennec flash into being just outside their headquarters, an old video game arcade.

Translation Complete

Beginning Primary Scan

-Establishing Data Connection

Location: NYC, 2012

-Note Prime Separation Factor: Digital World Project began pre-21st century, along with Prime artifact interference.

Nearby inter-reality signatures detected! High probability of missing objects present in nearby vicinity.

Tapping into feed... Disturbance ID'd

Paging Unit 03...

"Fennec, focus objects," an image of a large crystal filled the HUD, the outline of a crate could be seen within it. "Nora, standby for jump ASAP with the extraction equipment..." his voice rang firmly through the comm.

* * *

><p>"So can we or can we not use the laser for extraction?" he asked.<p>

"If the readings I'm getting are correct, you'd only be able to do so for a few seconds, until significant distortions begin to occur," replied the technician over the ComNet

"In that case we'll just use it to bore a hole for an explosive charge."

"That should work alright, just be careful with the load."

"Roger,"

"You wouldn't want to cause a resonance cascade would you now?" Durandal butted in.

"Oh hush, nobody asked you."

* * *

><p>The air was tense as the Digimon Heroes and Zoners prepared to face off against ZoneBullmon and his accomplices. However, out of the blue Angelomon poised to listen intently, his growling immediately ceasing.<p>

"What is it now?" Chris asked his energetic partner.

"Did you hear something strange?" the winged dog replied.

"No, I was a little preoccupied with THE GIANT DIGIMON that we're about to fight in a field of GIANT CRYSTALS!" he said, gesturing wildly at the spectacle before them.

Angelomon stared at one of the large crystals, enraptured by the light gleaming off of it. "Ooh! Shiny!" he said with wide eyes.

Chris facepalmed and a groan escaped his lips.

"Yo," Jermaine spoke up, "does anyone else hear that?"

The group paused for a second to try and listen for themselves. A silence surrounded the group -the normally heavily trafficked street having since been closed due the large crystals that now violently protruded from its surface. The silence, however, was short lived, as seconds later the lights in all the nearby buildings flickered and died. Suddenly, a beam of brilliant crimson light flared to life in the background, boring right into one of the crystals, flashing on and off several times before finally ceasing.

"I take it that's not a good thing?" Robert said, noticing Dan's worried face.

"No..." he replied with a frown, "in fact it's pretty bad - had it gone on much longer the crystals would've begun to destabilize." "We'll be back to figure this out later..." he said to ZoneBullmon as he turned around. The minotaur merely snorted in derision before returning to his crystal harvest.

"Renamon..." Robert turned his head towards his partner.

"Already on it," the vixen replied, warping away to investigate.

The rest of the group, incapable of such feats, headed towards the crystal that the light had struck, either hitching a ride on their partners, or running there themselves. As they began to gather around the crystal, the group immediately noticed it had an odd air about it.

"Holy Crap! Look at this!" Joey pointed to a hole at least several inches in diameter in the crystal's base. "What could've done this?"

Commandramon, bending low to get a closer look, felt the rim of the hole with his hand. "It must've been an energy beam of some sorts, nothing else could've made such a perfectly cut hole," he said.

"Daisuke? Something seem odd about this crystal to you?" asked Rairdramon.

"Hey you're right!" A puzzled look crossed the Digidestined's face. "It looks kinda hazy inside, like something's stuck in there."

"Looks like a crate to me..." said Monodramon.

"Yeah but what's it doing in there?" said Kevin.

"Better yet, what's in there?" added Mike.

"Well..." Dan began "Zone Crystal's are directly tied to the fabric of space-time as it relates to the digital world, so I guess it could've gotten sucked in there somehow if there was a strong enough distortion..."

Renamon re-appeared next to her partner as the group pondered the find."Robert," she said, drawing his attention.

"Did you find something?"

"Yes, right this way," she replied, indicating with a nod of her head, shifting her gaze away from the crystal before phasing away, only to reappear on a nearby roof. The group headed into the adjacent alleyway; several buildings back at an intersection stood a large box that sat on four wheels, it seemed to have some sort of an optical turret mechanism poking out the top.

"Does anyone else feel warmer?" said Eva, looking slightly flush.

"Maybe it's dumping waste heat?" Gatomon suggested.

"Let's be careful guys," a worried tone escaped Robert's lips "you saw what it did to that crystal."

Everyone looked around the device, trying to figure out what it was and where it came from while maintaining a safe distance.

"Here we go..." Joey said as he located the label and began to read, "Multi Purpose Heavy Laser, rated for 85 Kilowatts."

"Well that explains why the lights went out..." said Chris in a cynical tone.

"Please step away from the equipment!" droned a metallic, disembodied voice.

Startled, the group glanced around, trying to determine its origin.

"Show yourself!" Daisuke shouted as he walked around, fists clenched, face tense, before he bumped into something - seemingly thin air!

"Da heck?" Jermaine said, more than puzzled at the odd turn of events.

Davis, now scratched his head in confusion, and jumped backwards with a yelp, as a large six wheeled robot decloaked in front of him - knocking down Veemon in the process.

"Aaah!" Angelomon yelped in surprise.

"Calm down, it's just a robot," Chris said, plucking his excitable beast Digimon partner off his head.

"Oh...Aaah! A ninja robot!"

"Ughh..."

"Well at least it's not doing anything..." Davis began just as the robot's "head" began to turn and focus on the group, "...never mind."

"How about you do us all a favor and keep your mouth shut for once?" Robert quipped.

5 positive ID Matches. Boxes surrounded the faces in Fennec's vision as his sensors scanned those in front of him. Proceeding with contact protocols...

"Query: Confirm ID Dan "Blue" Ike" asked the robot.

"That's me," replied Dan as he gestured his thumb towards himself, "...but who're you?" he asked.

"Scout Recon Exploratory Drone unit Fennec, Traxus-Beta-823,543," it said, its head clicking, as it whirred back and forth.

"err... Query: Define Traxus," Joey asked, having noted the robots unusual speech pattern and taken it to be a programming syntax of some sort.

"The Traxus Initiative & Administration was formed to help develop and advocate for "Artificial Intelligences", thereafter referred to and known as Digital Intelligence's, a.k.a: DigI's, and the usage thereof;" The robot began, as if reading from an encyclopedic entry, "Combining resources developed before, after and during the war, it soon gained an international mandate to administer DigI's. Within 5 years, both the DigiNet and the Digital Worlds project entered Alpha. Production of Alpha's ceased 10 years later with 50 of the several thousand Digital Intelligences initialized created by Traxus itself."

"Interesting..." Dan muttered.

"I wish the damn thing would actually just tell us a bit more concretely!" moaned Jermaine.

"Query: Define Purpose," Daisuke asked, seeking to ameliorate his earlier clumsiness.

"To explore and traverse new environments and terrain." It replied simply.

"No! I mean what're you doing here you bucket of bolts!"

"Dude! Chill!" Jermaine said as he grabbed the hot headed Zoner by the shoulders.

"Let me try it," said Joey, having already successfully conversed with the robot. "Query: Define Purpose of Current Objectives."

"To locate and identify objects missing from roster due to temporal-quantum displacement."

The group was startled by a noise, it was a loud thud intertwined with the sound of something shattering, and it rang throughout the alley, interrupting the discussion. The group turned around just in time to see a cloud of smoke and debris rise up from the crystal they had just visited as it exploded, shattering violently. An engine revved as Fennec suddenly rushed by them, barely giving the group enough time to get out of the way as it scooted from the alley towing the laser unit. No sooner it had done so, then something was fired out of the cloud of debris - landing with a loud clank as it skipped several times before coming to a stop in the alley mouth.

"Grenade! Get down!" Commandramon cried, shoving several people out of the way behind trash cans and junk. Rather than exploding, however, the grenade simply began to spew thick smoke - and it was soon joined by another that landed just in front of the group's feet.

"What the hell is going on!?" Robert shouted, only to be interrupted by a loud roar.

"Someone must've angered ZoneBullmon!" said Dan, clearly worried.

"You said it!" replied Betamon; now the rapid discharge of weapons could be heard.

"We've got to hurry!" Robert waved towards the alley exit, "Guns won't do anything against him!" Following his lead the group charged through the smoke, occasionally coughing as some held their shirts over their face.

"Robert look!" Renamon indicated to a puddle on the ground as worry began to enter her voice.

"Blood!" he replied, "I hope we're not too late!"

The group burst through the haze to find a mysterious armored figure and armed vehicle fighting ZoneBullmon around a crate enshrouded in debris and covered in crystal fragments

"Show your face coward!" The giant Digimon shouted, swinging his right fist in a jab.

"Me, coward?" The man replied, easily dodging the attack, "Hardly, you're just jealous that I have power armor!"

"Is it just me, or does it look like that ZoneBullmon is actually injured?" Davis said in astonishment.

"Looks like they've managed to wound him with that cannon," said Commandramon "but how?"

"I dunno," his partner commented, "General Stanford hit some Digimon with tank shells during the invasion, and that didn't do squat!"

"Aha!" the figure shouted. In the blink of an eye he had dashed around ZoneBullmon with surprising speed jumped on his back and sliced off one of his horns with a short sword that seemingly appeared from nowhere.

ZoneBullmon's pupils dilate with pure rage. "Raaugh! You'll pay for that coward! How dare you contest our claim!"

"I could care less about the crystals," his opponent said simply, gesturing toward the crate. "I only need a few small samples of those, I'm merely here to recover my property."

"Well it's too late for you now!" the bull's nostrils flared.

"Actually it's the other way around," the man replied wryly.

"Fool! I'll crush you!"

"Hey, I'm not the one with high explosives on his back..."

The giant Bull turned his head to his shoulder and noticed with alarm the object on his back, and tried to scratch it off in vain.

"Oh well, it's too late now..." the man pushed a button on his arm, and an explosion sent ZoneBullmon's armor flying off in pieces with a sharp crack.

"Now?" a new voice perked.

"Yes, now," He replied with an edge of confidence as he pushed another button. A flare of light streamed from the device, revealing a Digimon with a physical build resemblant of Guilmon or Dorumon.

"I'm not getting any ID!" Daisuke exclaimed.

"They must be from an unexplored sector then..." muttered Dan.

"Pyro Blast!" the digimon shouted as a blue flame flew from his mouth to impact with ZoneBullmon. The large minotaur, still startled and disoriented, fell backwards into another crystal - which cracked and shattered slightly under the strain of the impact. With a loud thud, the giant fell to the ground, scorch marks and charring visible on his unconscious frame.

"Finally!" the stranger exclaimed as he proceeded to grab the crate, along with some crystal shards, and threw them into the back of the vehicle. "C'mon, our work here is done."

"D'aww, but I just got started," the raptor-esque digimon whined.

"Relax," the stranger replied "you'll get plenty of opportunities soon enough pal." He, turning around. "Oh!" He exclaimed as his head nodded toward his partner. "Lookie here, we've got ourselves an audience!"

"They've been there for awhile..." the digimon responded sarcastically.

"Well excuse me!I was a little too busy to stop and chat."

"Yeah, because you..."

"Just who the hell are you!?" Daisuke sputtered, his remark interrupting the two partners jestful argument.

"Me?" the armored man asked, turning around. He pauses, and with a puff the seals are broken, the helmet pulled off. The calm figure stood large, or at least bulky, silent with tranquility. Breeze blew through his short hair and facial hair, the sun glinted off the lenses that covered his eyes. "Call me Daneel" he said simply, "for that is the name I wish you to know me by."

"...that's it?" Betamon said, simultaneously displaying surprise and annoyance, while expressing a light sprinkle of sarcasm. "Nothing else at all?"

"Nah," he replied with a little smile. "Why give away my advantage?"

Daisuke's mouth tried to form coherent words, but just flapped open and shut a few times instead.

"Don't worry about it." A distinct buzzing could be heard emanating from the device mounted on his wrist, "excuse me, gotta take a call..." he said, turning slightly; 03 the shoulder pad was marked, there was a green triforce with an infinity sign below it too. "Yes the crate's recovered...I managed to get some sample too, I'll be returning ASAP. Miles, could you do me a favor though? Yeah, send the video over to Traxus, tell them they lost the bet and owe us pizza. Daneel out."

I just met him, and this guy's got my nerves feeling uneasy... thought Daisuke "Davis" Motomiya.

"Sorry kids but I got to leave," said Daneel, turning around as he began to secure some objects in the armed vehicle's trunk cavity.

"You're not even gonna tell us where you're from?" Jermaine asked.

"Or what you're doing here?" added Mike.

"What I'm doing here should be fairly obvious, I'm sure that Dan and his group have done it many times," he paused. "Here," he said as he handed a large brick shaped to his partner. "Go take care of sleeping beauty over there, willya," he thumbed towards the incapacitated ZoneBullmon.

"Will do," the nearly 5 foot tall dinosaur nodded before dashing off.

"As for where I'm from, it's somewhere else in space-time north of here, relatively speaking."

"Canada?" Davis asked. Daneel threw something at the dense digidestined turned Zone Tamer.

"No," he replied in an amused voice, "but this should tell you everything you want-I mean I want you to know, eventually."

A bright flash of light turned the group's attention from Daisuke's pained noggin, now sporting a large welt, and towards where ZoneBullmon lay unconscious. Daneel continued to talk, completely ignoring the large Digimon who was getting sucked into a rectangular device.

"Relative to Earth, if you must know..." he replied, drawing the armor's large hands to his face, in a manner which spoke of reminiscence. "I was born when much was but a story, and the digital world but a pipe dream unformed."

"Here you go," the man's saurien partner said, handing back the rectangular device adorned with bright warning labels. The dragon like creature sported tufts of fur as well as scales.

"Thanks," said Daneel as he grasped the device, which commanded considerable heft despite its misleading size. "The food's in the trunk..." he said as his partner disappeared in the blink of an eye from where he stood. "Just don't forget to leave me some!" he called as he turned his head slightly, "I swear if you eat them all again …!"

"How'd you do that?" asked Kevin.

"Hmm? Do what?" Daneel replied.

"You know, suck that giant digimon into that tiny device!" added Joey.

"Yeah, what'd you do steal it from Ghostbusters?" Betamon said sarcastically.

"Pixie dust,"

"Uh, what?" Daneel's answer drew Robert's sardonic reply and incredulous expression as he spoke for the entire group.

"As far as it concerns you, it's not that far from the truth; pixie dust, magical gnomes, elves and dwarves, advanced science and technology, it's all much of the same if ya catch my drift."

"Could you please just give us a concrete answer?" Davis said, with a frown.

"Sorry, but no," he replied with the wag of a finger while his other hand popped open a latch on the containment device. "That costs extra and you neither have brownie points nor are you eligible to earn them as of present."

"Huh!? " Chris frowned, as confused as most of the group.

"Actually it does," Daneel replied with a grin, "you just need to spend some quality thinking time to get it, an ability this generation has - but of which many are unwilling to use to its fullest potential. As far as sanity goes, both me, what I said and how I said it, is significantly saner than the Internet," he grimaced briefly before returning to his arm mounted digivice. "Oh by the way, I do believe this is yours," he plucked an object from the containment device, now sitting in Nora's trunk and tossed it to Dan.

"A flash drive!?" Davis said as Dan caught the object.

"Yes, one canned minotaur, open with caution, intense user discretion advised," Daneel replied mockingly.

"And for those of you harboring the inevitable question," the mysterious Digimon remarked as he munched on a bagel, "I'm not a recolor." A smirk graced it's face before it disappeared into the digivice in a flash of light.

"Ready for translation," a somewhat synthetic voice rang.

"Alright Nora," Daneel said as he punched a command into his Digivice, before again turning to face the Heroes. "I'm sure we'll meet again, I do believe I've overstayed my welcome," he said as the drone of helicopter rotors grew in intensity. He re-donned his helmet as the final words were leaving his mouth. It was then that all of the mysterious newcomers, Daneel, Fennec, and Nora, vanished in a flash of light, just as the Black Hawk military helicopters flew into view.

"Ooh, pretty!" Angelomon said, hovering in the air as the bright light filled his eyes.

"I hope someone knows what to make of that..." Kevin's Veemon exclaimed, " 'cause I sure don't."

"I dunno," Said Dan, "but I have the feeling this'll be happening again."

The light gleamed off the ball handed to them by Daneel.

* * *

><p>Note: Digimon Heroes belong to ~HewyLewis of dA, to whom I thank for his wonderful stories + ~BlueIke, also of dA, for the DZ: A Heroes Tale comicstory that inspired this chapter, not to mention Crazyeight for Beta reading this for me.


	3. Trouble with a Capital T

Chapter 3

Trouble with a capital T

D.A.T.S HQ, Savers Zone

"Fascinating..." The blond teen began as he turned his head away from the computer screen. "Why didn't you tell me that you had this before?"

"We were pretty occupied last time..." One of his companions replied from underneath his hat, upon which a Betamon sporting headphones perched.

"Dang, they rebuilt this place pretty fast!" Davis exclaimed.

"Let's just say we had a little increase in funding." Said Yoshi, the female component of the famous three member Data Squad.

"Sounds about right." Muttered Dan's partner from atop his head.

"Well it's certainly better than the last time we were here..." Said Davis, remembering the nearly collapsed building he saw during his first visit to Savers Zone.

At which point Joey, a bit more than your average run of the mill gogglehead, entered the room "Which part?" He exclaimed sardonically "The crazy omnipotent god of the digital world and his lackeys? Or that whole mess with that freaky Chaos dude?"

"Hmm..." Davis muttered, "Wait, what are you guys still doing around here anyways? I thought you would've hightailed it home a while ago."

"I could ask the same of you," Joey, easily Davis's approximate equivalent in goggle-headedness, replied, "but if you must know, some of us decided to stay and help out for a while."

"Wait, if you guys are here then..." Genuine concern crept across Dan's face.

"Dani?" Joey piped, referring to Dan's alternate gendered counterpart from Sliders Zone who was infamous for disregarding Dan's personal space. "She left a while ago..."

Dan, much relieved by this knowledge, let out a deep breath as he wiped the sweat from his brow. His moment of peace, however, is short lived, as a white furry creature flew straight into him, knocking both the surprised Tamer and his partner down.

The winged dog squealed in excitement in Dan's face, its tail wagging ferociously "Hi!" it said.

"Oh! Hi Angelomon." Dan said as he got up from the unexpected encounter.

"Ooh..." Beta groaned as he rolled back on his feet. "What hit me?"

"Angelomon!" A voice rang.

"...oh" The amphibious Digimon let loose a small sigh as the answer to his question presented itself.

"I thought I told you to stay in sight!" The excitable Digimon's partner exclaimed in exhaustion.

"Sorry, I got excited by a scent." Angelomon simply replied.

Chris face palmed as he let loose a groan.

"Well that hasn't changed." Betamon muttered.

"Sadly …" the pale faced goth replied before doing a double take, "Hey! What are you guys doing back here?"

"As far as I know just a checkup," Davis began, shrugging his shoulders "Izzy said he was getting some abnormal readings, and was also worried by the recent increase in digimon appearances."

"Ooh, a ball!" Angelomon's ears perked and his eyes widened as he dashed through the air towards the ball shaped device plugged into the computer.

"Angelomon!" Chris's attention turned once again to the never ending task of keeping his partner under control. "Leave that alone!" He said, shooing the canine away from the object in question before happening to glance at it himself. "Hey! isn't that the weird device that guy gave you?"

"Yep," Dan replied as he stretched, throwing his elbows in the air as he walked around, hands on his head.

"Finally!" Thomas exclaimed as a loud chime rang from the device.

"What is it?" Asked Dan.

"Yeah, what'd you find?" Said Davis as the group crowded around the screen.

"A letter?" said Veemon, curiously.

To whomever it concerns, from wherever or when,

If I have not yet properly introduced, myself let me do so now, I am Daneel, and although that is not my true name, I choose to go by it, as it allows me to act without being bound by social position. Thus, having the identity that I do is extremely useful, because as you probably suspect, I have played a not insignificant role in making where I come from what it is, but to explain that, I'll have to tell you a tale of sorts.

We found the device not long after we happened upon the ruins. There was a portion far separated from the rest, and we gazed in awe at what it contained. The Infinity Brigade had already begun to consolidate, combining resources of the odd and advanced, Claritas Base became its jewel.

It was the sort of device that only ascended races were capable of making, any could use it, to some degree, but it could never be copied in full. We called it the Magic Box, for that is what it was, a brilliant cube that could put the monoliths of 2001: A Space Odyssey to shame.

During my ensuing travels, news came and went. The device was a mere node in an extensive network spread across space like a trail of tantalizing breadcrumbs. It even began to cause spatial anomalies within our computer networks!

10 months ago we tested our first major reverse engineering of the device. What happened next is a story in itself, but essentially we ended up interacting with a variant of Mobius local to our Universe, which saw the Infinity Brigade's first major deployment.

You may be wondering why I'm here. It's simple really; A little over a day ago one of the "Magic Box's" subsystems was accidentally activated, resulting in the disappearance of some very valuable equipment and artifacts, 7 crates, in fact, and we'd rather not see them fall into the wrong hands. Naturally, once everything was determined to be safe I jumped through the looking glass in pursuit.

By now how I know of you should be apparent, and I'm sure you've encountered the same paradoxical circumstances before. So friend, seeing as some of our duties and goals are similar and our fates now intertwine, you lend me your support and I'll lend you mine. If you happen to see anything with our insignia as is displayed here on this device, it likely belongs to me, and I'd appreciate it greatly if you could hold onto it until I can come to collect. I cannot emphasize enough how much I need you to keep said crates safe, I'm certain you'll be able to figure out where I am so we can continue a dialogue.

Signed,

-Daneel, on behalf of Infinity. May you find the data on this device helpful in whatever chaos follows.

Regards from me as well, looking forward to future adventures.

-Cynosaurimon, Traxus-Gamma-[Registry # Redacted]

Ditto, I haven't had this much fun in a while.

-Durandal, Traxus-Gamma-I

"Hmm..." Thomas mused, _clearly this Daneel's a leader of some sort, and most definitely involved in a high-tech agency, then there's this "artifact" he mentions, it sounds very powerful..._

"Traxus," Dan muttered, pointing to the last two signatures. "It looks like they're some sort of regulatory agency from his dimension, this first one's probably his Digimon, but the second..."

"Sounds like an AI of some sort" said Joey.

"Then why do they have similar registry ID's?" Dan responded.

A loud rumbling sound brought the group's attention away from the computer and toward the blue dinosaur and his partner, who grinned sheepishly. "Sorry," said Davis "guess it's that time again." The other members of the group glanced at their watches and rubbed their stomachs in agreement as they followed him out the door. Thomas followed suit, taking a moment to grab the device and his laptop before following the others to the cafeteria.

30 minutes later

"Warning! Inbound Dive Transfer!" the computer blared.

"That's strange," noted Yoshino, "nothing's scheduled for a few more hours..."

Fennec pops out in front of the Digital Dive Chamber.

"Huh? A robot!"

Fennec's "head" moved, surveying its surroundings from atop the pole that stuck out from its rectangular 6 wheeled body, before finally setting its sights on Yoshino and the Commander.

"Well this is new..." said Kudamon, wrapped about the commander's neck as usual.

"Query: Confirm Location; DATS HQ."

"How did you get in here? This is a secure facility!" The commander said brusquely, his forehead pinched in a mix between anger and confusion.

"All information regarding object translation capabilities is classified without proper authorization," the robot replied.

Davis and Marcus, as if on cue, strolled in from lunch.

"Hey!" Davis pointed as he came to a complete halt "It's that robot again!"

"Unit possesses ID, Proper designation name is Fennec," It corrected Davis.

"Wait, you've met this thing before?" Yoshino asked, looking very confused at the whole matter.

"Yeah," Davis replied "it showed up in Heroes Zone while we were visiting!"

"Then what's it doing here?!" The commander's voice grew firm with surprise and anger.

"Query: DATS possess Artifact Crate 02?" Fennec asked.

"What's it talking about?"

"I dunno Agumon..." Marcus scratched his head in confusion.

"It must want the crate we recovered last week!" piped Lalamon.

"Well you can't have it you tin can!" Marcus's fists began to clench. "I had to go through a lot of trouble to get it!"

"That's right Boss, you tell em!" His partner cheered.

"Demand: DATS return Infinity Brigade property." Fennec said in a deeper tone that hinted at anger and annoyance.

"Marcus..." Yoshino whispered in his ear. "Why don't you use your brain for once and think before you cause any more trouble!"

"You saw how powerful an effect that crate had on Digimon!" He replied angrily. "We just can't hand it over!"

"Hmmm..." The commander thought, rubbing his chin.

"Reinforcement transport commencing..." Fennec stated, startling the others and causing them to jerk their heads about from their argument.

"Warning! Unauthorized dive transit inbound!" The computer announced. A loud humming filled the air, followed by crackles of energy

"Another one!?" Yoshi exclaimed. "Marcus..." she growled.

"Doesn't make me any less right," He retorted. "Besides..." he smirked, "If I can defeat Yggdrasil I can handle anything!" He said, pounding his chest proudly.

"Are you sure about that? You're quite the belligerent one." A voice echoed from the dive chamber, following a loud discharge of energy.

"Lock down the dive chamber!" The commander barked.

"Already underway sir!" Miki replied as the large blast doors slammed shut, allowing only a quick glimpse of a large, bulky figure.

"Really? Is this how you treat all your guests?" The voice rang from behind the doors.

"That voice!..." Davis's eyes widened.

"Who are you?!" challenged Marcus' bellicose voice..

"It's him!"

"Who?" asked Yoshi.

"The guy we told you about! What was his name again..." Davis tried to remember.

"Daneel" The voice answered.

"Yeah, that was it, Daneel!" Davis did a double take. "Wait a minute..."

"Well, whoever you are, you're not welcome here!" Marcus frowned, crossing his arms.

"Well I tried..." Daneel sighed. "Cy, you wouldn't mind opening that door would you?" He asked someone with an edge of jest.

"No problem!" A voice replied.

"We've got a system breach!" Megumi said as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

"What?! How is that possible?" The commander asked in exasperation.

"I don't know sir, but I can't stop it!"

The doors slowly opened to reveal an armored figure.

"Now then..." Daneel began. "Can we please get down to the business at hand? I'm sure we can reach a mutual agreement..." he said calmly.

"The only business we've got with you pal, is my fist!" Marcus raged as he dashed forward to strike Daneel with all his might. A dull thud resounded. "...ow," the aggressive teen said under his breath, teeth clenched, as he withdrew his throbbing right hand.

"Boy's not big on brains is he?" Daneel's voice echoed from his helmet.

"You could say that..." Said Yoshino, her eyebrow twitching with annoyance.

"Well then," exclaimed the suit of armor, as it ignored Marcus's continued attacks. "I guess I'll just have to speak his language..." he said, suddenly grabbing Marcus by the collar and lifting him off the ground.

"Boss!" Agumon cried.

"Hey! Put me down!" Marcus indignantly squirmed.

"Heh, if you say so..." The reply came, as Marcus was heft across the room with ease.

"I got you Boss!" Said the dragon type Rookie as he scrambled to catch his partner.

"Oof!" The wind is knocked from Davis's lungs, followed by a moan of pain as the young teen finds misfortune yet again when Agumon bumps into him, as Marcus pins them both underneath him.

"Are we done here?" The confident figure says, dusting off his hands. "Or do I have to whup your ass again?"

"I'm not done with you just yet!" the cocky street-fighter spat as he surged forward yet again. Daneel let out a small chuckle as he sidestepped, tripping his surprised opponent whose momentum prevented him from reacting in time.

"Ugh!" dust rose into the air in Marcus' wake. "Why don't you fight me?" he said as he rose, now looking a bit more disheveled "You scared?"

"Hardly boy" Daneel spoke plainly. "I just don't want to break you, that's all."

"Funny..." Marcus wiped blood and sweat off his face with the back of his hand as he lightly chuckled "..because that's what's gonna happen to you!" His eyes glinted fiercely as he swung towards Daneel with a resounding battle cry.

"It's been fun and all, but now this is just getting tiring" the large, gloved hand crept towards a pouch on his waist. "I've got more important things to do, nighty-night." The large handgun flies from its holster, and with great skill, held true, and fired.

Marcus collapses.

"Marcus!" Yoshino rushes towards the Data Squad member, who now lays sprawled across the ground.

"Boss!" Agumon cries. The large miniature dinosaur turned angrily to confront the menacing bulk of Daneel. "Pepper Breath," he shouts as a fiery ball spewed forth from his mouth and impacted with their enigmatic visitor shortly thereafter.

"Fine, be that way." says a voice. A look of surprise graces the face of everyone within the command center, as they blink; in the middle of the room Daneel still stands, with only a light scorch mark on his armor to indicate that the attack even happened at all. A second shot is fired, and this time it is Agumon who falls, landing right next to his incapacitated human partner.

"Ugh..." Marcus groaned as he slowly propped himself up. "What'd you do to us?" he asked "That hurt!" Dazed, Marcus' focuses on the fluid splattered hole in his shirt "Huh? Paint?" he exclaims, squinting to overcome his drowsiness.

"What, you thought I'd actually use lethal rounds on an unarmed person?" Daneel drawled as the gun slipped back into the holster.

"Huh? Then how'd you do that?" asked Yoshino.

"That's of no concern to you," he replied.

"Of course it's of concern!" growled the commander. "You've shot and disabled one of our best agents and his partner!"

"It's just a KO paint round..." a voice stated, emanating from the device on Daneel's wrist.

"Who's that?" Kudamon's head perked inquisitively.

"Ask goggles number two over there" the voice chuckled "he knows, we've already met!"

_This guy has a partner? _Yoshino mused. _That doesn't look like any digivice I've ever seen... _she thought, noting the odd bullet shaped device with a rubberized case and four buttons running lengthwise across the long sides of the rectangular screen.

"Why can't I move?" Marcus said weakly, causing several of the others to shift their gaze.

"Hey boss?" the orange dinosaur asked.

"Yeah, Agumon?"

"I feel tired..."

"Me too," his partner replied, letting out a large yawn "Me too..."

"That would be the tranquilizers kicking in, 'thought that'd be obvious by now," the voice said.

"In paint? It didn't even break his skin!" Davis scratched his head.

"Why is Agumon affected too?" asked Lalamon as she floated calmly next to her companion, who was unsuccessfully trying to wake the dynamic duo.

"Well, lets just say- they're not normal tranquilizers." Daneel said smoothly.

"How so?" asked the Commander. _He might be brash, _he thought,_ but he seems to have extremely useful technology._

"The paint's filled with medical nannies." elaborated Daneel, turning his hands face up in a slight gesture.

"Nannies?" asked Veemon as he pictured tiny nurses rising from the paint and bopping Marcus and Agumon over the head with a rolling pin.

"What you'd call Nanobots," Daneel's partner replied from inside the digivice. "You know, microscopic machines capable of doing a variety of tasks."

"Who do you represent?"

"hm?"

"What agency are you from?" Asked the Commander "Surely to have such advanced technology you must be part of a larger group."

"The Infinity Brigade; I am Daneel of the Infinity Brigade here with my partner, on official business, and if you hadn't noticed," he said, gesturing to the slumbering Marcus and Agumon "we're not from around here, and I say that in the broadest sense possible."  
>"Another reality?" Davis groaned, as a Zone Tamer he'd certainly seen more than his share of oddities.<p>

"Bingo," Daneel shot back, pointing to the brash gogglehead and his blue partner.

"Who exactly are you in all of this? Why are you here?" Queried Kudamon.

"Didn't you get the memo?" Daneel asked.

"Thomas has it," said Lalamon, "he's still at lunch so we haven't gotten around to looking at it in depth."

"Well, if you've got the time, and I'm sure you have", Daneel said, ignoring Yoshino's attempts to enter the conversation "I guess I'll just have to enlighten you all a little bit to my background."

"Finally" Davis muttered "not like ya needed an invitation or anything."

"I saw the world I knew collapse into chaos, then be reborn in the thousands of fires that followed, rising from the ashes like a phoenix in the night." Daneel began.

_Hoo boy, this is gonna be a long one _thought Yoshino, having had enough of an exposure to eccentric individuals to last a lifetime. Her bemused expression was reflected on the faces of many in the room.

"The future came to meet us, and I strode forward to meet it full on. I walked through desolate fields and dying valleys, heard the cries of the fallen, and saw the smoke and fog of the battlefield, hanging round the heads of man in a silent haze. I saw nobility and cowardice, valor and depravity, wonders and horrors, multiple reflections of man's soul. It was dark, but the dawn was coming, and when it did, I knew I had not walked through all that darkness for nought. Old dreams sprang to life as only they can; the burden strained on me, but I put in my all, and what I saw from the summit was beautiful, as I'd always seen it. I did it. I did it for me and for humanity; all that are, all that were, and all that will ever be. I built with my hands and my mind, helped bring us together. I rose the flag for the fallen and the future, then reached for the stars. I let myself fade into the background for a time. I had seen the dawn of a new age, and I was a part of it, helped to seed it with my own hands. I looked into the face of my dreams, and cried with a happy heart, no longer fantasy nor fiction, but reality with new life abound. Then evils, both necessary and not, resurfaced again in force and struck at me, hoping to bring me down for good and usurp all that I had wrought. I became a whirlwind; man fell around me yet again, many not fully knowing neither their fate nor what hit them, such that those who tried to catch up were left dealing with my wake. Despite the consciousness that surrounded me in a huddled, bickering mass, as it had often been, I breached the heart of the matter and scalded shut its hideousness before it could spawn yet again. In my wake I again left legends, myths, and a trail of facts for all who dared to decipher. I have but one true name but many aliases and echoes. You shall know me by thus: call me Daneel."

The room's ensuing silence was short lived, as Thomas and Gaomon burst through the door. "Commander!" he asked "What set off the alarm?" As his eyes wandered across the room, the answer hit him. Surprised, the usually cool, collected, and most mature member of the Data Squad then did an abrupt double take.

"Wait up!" a voice called, as Dan, Chris, Joey, Jermaine, and their respective partners followed Thomas through the door before coming to an abrupt halt at the scene before them. Eyes darted from the unconscious Marcus to the large armored man.

"What?" Daneel asked the arrivals.


	4. Troublesome Times

Chapter 4

Troublesome Times

To say odd things happen upon the manipulation of space-time is somewhat of an understatement, anyone who has partaken in such an endeavor knows this; as Newton once said, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." Needless to say probabilities get really messed up in the process. As such, the Digimon Heroes, who were currently frequenting the Savers Zone, were somewhat surprised by Daneel's appearance, resulting in an impromptu standoff in DATS's control room after he decked Marcus.

"That's got to be a new record," Thomas said wryly "what was it this time?"

"What do you think?" said Yoshino. "He tried to bite off more than he could chew and finally managed to get his ass kicked because of it. She gestured to Daneel who stood watching in silence while several digimon poked and prodded Agumon and Marcus.

"He managed to knock out both of them?" a look of acute interest crossed Thomas's face while Gaomon looked over Marcus "Impressive..."

"I detect no signs of blows sufficient to result in unconsciousness on either of them, only scrapes and bruises on the arms, legs, and knuckles" said the ever loyal Gaomon after scrupulously examining the pair.

"Curious..." muttered Thomas.

"ID's Confirmed," Fennec chimed "completing network scan..." The ball shaped object Thomas was holding seemed to come to life as it briefly buzzed and lit up with a flash. "2 Objects of interest located, packet return from CompuBall PCND and Crate 4."

At this news Daneels helmet perked up as he strode forward. "Commander," the large man said as he took several steps, seeming relatively cool and at ease with the whole affair as he approached his supposed counterpart. "I do apologize for any inconvenience I've caused, but if you could direct me toward my property so I can recover it, it'd be most greatly appreciated." The helmet's face plate turned translucent, and what could only be described as a creature could be seen within a window on the pair of goggles that rested underneath.

From beneath his sunglasses the Sampson met Daneel's gaze, _could he trust this man? his intentions certainly seemed honorable and trustworthy, and it'd certainly take the crate and any future problems it could cause off his hands. But then again, there was something about him that seemed questionable, he couldn't really forget how the man had forced his entry... _"Of course," the commander announced "under the condition that you divulge some of your technology."

"We have no problems with a little info exchange," Daneel said after a moment's pause. "I should be able to answer any questions that Fennec here can't. Which way did you say the lab was?"

"Thomas," The Commander nodded towards DATS resident tech-head, who began to stride towards the door. "By the way, how were you able to get here in the first place?" he asked.

"Let's just call it a really really old Quantum-Temporal dislocation or slip device," Daneel said as he left "plenty know it exists, but very few know of the full extent of its abilities, let alone are able to use it."

Soon the only mystery left in the room was Fennec.

"Hello," he greeted "Statement: This unit's designation is Fennec. Proper authorization for query engagement granted. USynt guide will be provided if desired."

Clearly it would be more formidable than anticipated.

"What exactly are these artifacts you mentioned?" asked Dan, who'd experienced several struggles dealing with mysterious objects.

"Not much beyond the usual, just bits of advanced technology that has great potential for misuse and/or has dangerous side effects," replied Daneel, his voice ringing of age. "-But you probably already guessed that. You said it was Lab 32 Thomas, right? seven floors down?"

"Correct," Thomas nodded. "You have these dangerous artifacts to keep them under control and protect the public?"

"Of course," said Daneel "it's only logical." The elevator doors opened with a ding, and they entered. "We're Infinity, it's what we do; that's why we have units like Fennec and our sister organization/ sub-division Traxus, it makes our job easier and safer, not that it still isn't dangerous mind you."

"Being weird's a job?" muttered Betamon.

"About Fennec..." began Dan.

"Yeah?"

"What is he exactly? I mean what's with the weird speech pattern and all?"

"Seriously, it's like something from a bad movie," interjected Davis.

"Heh, well for starters Fennec is not necessarily a "he", although we tend to refer to him that way out of politeness and the fact that he has a masculine leaning neural model. I know you know that gender is a fairly abstract and fuzzy concept as far as digital organisms are concerned, being coded differently and thus pliable in different means. When he gets older, should he choose to replicate, there's numerous ways for him to do so." Daneel said, occasionally letting out an amused huff.

"He's an AI you made?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"We prefer the term Digital Intelligences, or DigI's," the voice of Blitz, Daneel's companion, wafted from speakers somewhere on the hi-tech armored suit.

"Whaddya mean we? Aren't you a Digimon like us?" asked DemiVeemon.

"Ah, but what is that exactly? Or can I not say, I know what you are but what am I?" Sounded a new voice, slick and sweet as wit can allow.

"Great, another one?" said Davis "Who is it this time?" he asked, somewhat unnerved by its spontaneous appearance.

"Just another passing thought," it replied "certainly more than you're used to."

"Hey!" responded Davis indignantly while DemiVeemon and the other Digimon sniggered.

"Gamma-1, as much as I find your unexpected appearance as amusing as ever," began Daneel "I know you have better things to do than harass our friends. You know, actual work like analyzing the new anomalies? Besides, you're hogging the bandwidth."

"Fine, it was just a friendly visit; I claim priority for later though. Now where was I? … Hey! Shoo, off my data node!"

"Problems?" asked Cynosaurimon.

"I'll deal with _you_ later. These frikken critters are everywhere! Argh! F-in monkeys better have a good explanation for this..." the feed cut as abruptly as it had began.

*Snerk*, Cynosaurimon chuckled. "Relax," he said "it's just my brother, so don't get too uptight."

At this revelation some odd stare ensued as the elevator doors opened.

"Your brother?...What sort of Digimon is he?" Betamon asked as he gave Daneel's back a questionable glance.

"He's not," Cynosaurimon answered simply.

Dan and Thomas looked at each other, the faces reflecting the worrisome and cautious feelings they held inside themselves. The only non-Digimon, computer based intelligences that they'd had experience with often created problems for them, in one form or another, never mind the fact that the vast majority of them had been malevolent. It spoke untold volumes of Daneel's world that they had such an AI, let alone the fact that Daneel himself seemed incredibly familiar with both the individual AI in question, and the subject in general.

"Your 'brother's' a disembodied voice?" asked Davis incredulously.

"Well, he's kind of more like an uncle really, but if you must know he's a Subset II DigI," said Cynosaurimon. "That means a DigI that tends to be non-corporeal in form, unlike Digimon and the like, which are Subset I's just like their non-digital counterparts," he added.

All this while Daneel had remained quiet on the subject, choosing to focus on the artifact. Now he spoke. "Gamma-1 is reflectant of many things, myself included, and ultimately the same source as his namesake. That is, the sword that Roland couldn't break." He stopped. "We're here," he announced as the lab door opened. Before anyone else could comment on his statement, he had approached the crate that rested on the lab bench with familiarity. "I see you managed to get past the first set of safeguards," he said to Thomas, noticing the small open hatch on the crate's side.

"It took Master Thomas a while to figure out the code," said Gaomon "as I recall it was a week full of late and restless nights."

"No doubt, but where did you get this?" said Daneel as he lifted a small ball shaped device off a different lab bench. "Truth be told, I wasn't expecting to find one of our probe's here."

"Hey DemiVeemon," Davis whispered slyly to the small, blue and adorable digimon which clutched to his shoulder.

"Yes Davish?"

"You don't suppose there's a reason so many of this guy's gadgets are shaped like balls do you?"

DemiVeemon, scratched his head. "The better to play with?" he said.

The two looked each other in the eye, and could barely restrain their laughter.

Unfortunately for Davis, the heavily damaged probe chose this moment to reactivate and totter out of Daneel's hand. Mistaking Davis's posture for a threat, the probe decided to activate its self defence mechanism. However, due to the damage, it was unable to properly regulate it; so rather than a small electric shock, Davis received a rather large helping...

ZAP!

"...ow," muttered Davis, as both him and DemiVeemon lay reposed on the floor in a daze.

"Hm, didn't even have to use my clue stick," murmured Daneel as he picked up the still squirming probe. "Sorry about that," he said "usually we don't have much in the way of behaviour issues with probes."

"How so?" asked Dan.

"Well, they're not supposed to have much in the way of behaviour in the first place. Somehow this little critter managed to become self-aware and develop a SMEPH. Someone back home hasn't been careful enough with their code, apparently."

"SMEPH? That's a weird acronym," said Davis, whose adventuring experience had long since enabled him to easily recover from such misfortunes.

"Yeah, wuzzit stand for anywho's?" chirped DemiVeemon.

"All you need to know is that it's a way of describing and coding how brains work," said Daneel as he gently prodded the in-training Digimon "very important in multiple fields, but AI and cybernetics R&D in particular."

_That's eerily peculiar _thought Dan,_ reminds me of Tamer's Zone and the Southern Quadrant. I'll need to have a __**long**__ talk with Izzy after this... _he smirked a little on the inside, the Zoner's tech chief was well known for his ability to let technical subjects take hold of a conversation and draw it out.

"Where did you find the little bugger anyhow?" Daneel asked Thomas.

"Oh, that? We found it in the rubble near the crate when we finally managed to excavate it from the wreckage. We had a pretty devastating attack come out of the blue three weeks ago, luckily we were able to restrict the damage to only half a block."

"How fortunate. Hand me that CompuBall, would ya?" Daneel gestured to the sphere in Thomas's hand.

"Alright," the blonde passed the device to him with some uncertainty.

The others watched transfixed as Daneel placed the ball on the counter and proceeded to open it with the push of a button. The top flipped back to reveal a screen, which soon expanded, while the bottom flipped down to place the keyboard and mouse. Finally the side panels opened up to reveal speakers and make the whole assembly look less cluttered. Daneel expediently plugged the CompuBall into the nearest electrical socket as it turned on and proceeded to meticulously jack in a couple cables, one to the crate and the other to the probe, which although no longer roaming around, continued to swivel back and forth, taking great care not to tangle itself.

"It's just a computer, a fancy computer in the shape of a ball," droned Davis.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," said Cynosaurimon "why the hell do you think it's called a CompuBall?"

"Besides, can your computer have such high amounts of processing power and withstand the same forces as a cannonball?" added Daneel "I think not."

Processing... the device chimed. Display Probe memory? Y/N the query flickered on the screen for but a mere moment before disappearing, apparently it had already been answered. Daneel's hands hadn't touched the keyboard, Dan noticed.

The image of a city appeared on screen, 03:30 Zulu, the timestamp in the upper right corner read. Contact with Mother Unit Lost, the log message rolling across the screen bottom proclaimed. The timestamp flew forward before returning to its normal pace. Warning! Spacial Rupture/Anomaly Detected! The message read, indicating the highlighted purple disk in the sky.

"Hey, that looks like around the time that we were dealing with Yggdrasil and the Royal Knights!" said Davis.

The video paused. "What's the matter?" asked Dan.

"Something's off..." Daneel replied as lines of code and analysis data filled the screen. "Here, what do you make of this," he said to Thomas "I need an outside opinion."

Thomas scooted close to the screen and studied it intensely. "Looks like a fairly complex virus to me," he said "it appears to be designed to gain administrative access to computer systems, but doesn't seem to have any instructions to exploit it..."

"I did say it was odd."

"The only thing that seems to give it any purpose is this line right here," Thomas pointed to the screen. "If key signal met then access grant = true."

"Shit," said Daneel as he opened the case. There were several objects inside of the rectangular storage device, but the one that Daneel raised was a brilliant black cube that he held aloft for but a few moments. The device slid comfortably back into its padded indent inside the crate, Daneel had apparently learned all that he needed to know. A deep breath flowed in and out of his mouthpiece. "Dammit," he explained as the lid slammed shut and he began to move. He need not explain himself, for a vibe of foreboding trouble had already permeated the room. He muttered to himself as the data flew through his mind and in front of his head, "okay then, on to step two..." He turned around, "Make a hole and get outta my way," he said "gotta get to ground level ASAP!"

The small grouping of people that had gathered in the lab barely had time to dash out of the way as the large figure effortlessly picked up the crate and dashed out of the door with a surprising finesse.

"Dude could've given me a bit more warning!" Davis said almost catatonically as the group peered out of the door at the vanishing figure. "He almost squashed me!"

"He's got mad mobility for such a hefty frame 'though," Jermaine said, obviously impressed by Daneel's armor.

*Sigh* "Come on, let's go," said Dan.

"Well that was fun..." said Yoshino sardonically as she carted Marcus to the infirmary, aided by another member of the DATS staff, while the Commander walked alongside. "I mean, who is this guy!?" she exclaimed. "He can't just come waltzing in and act like he owns the place!"

"Well he certainly seems to have advanced resources," the commander began, "and if we cooperate he'll be more likely to share some of it, like that suit of armor."  
>"Why the helmet though? It seemed hermetically sealable..."<p>

"I suppose it'd be to protect the user from airborne toxins or gas," the Commander mused.

"You could always ask Fennec," Lalamon said.

"Nooo..." Yoshi's face hung low, overshadowed by dread. "Not that again, it barely answered any of our questions." The robot had indeed sucked up much of their time; it would often give dodgy, confusing or unsatisfactory answers, consisting of textbook definitions and little more, sans dates, leaving DATS with little knowledge gained for the encounter. All they'd been able to learn was that Daneel and his entourage were probably from the near future, where the use of AI's was not uncommon, but strictly regulated.

"Look! There's Daneel, why don't we ask him?" Lalamon gestured toward the onrushing figure.

"Stop! We've got some questions for yooou?!" Kudamon cried, surprise edging into his voice as the subject in question made no attempt to comply with his demand.

"Sorry vance*!" the man said as he dashed past "got a big problem to fix!"

"Vance?" Kudamon said, his bewildered expression also affixed on his companions. The brief moment is interrupted the group of Tamers attempts to round the nearby corner in chase of Daneel...on a newly waxed floor. They crash and pile up, sliding into the view of Yoshino and the Commander, the former letting out a disgruntled sigh.

"Oww..." Davis rubbed his back as the elevator doors opened to disgorge the group out onto the parking level.

"Who'd've thought that something as large and bulky as a suit of armor would be this obnoxious to follow?" said Joey.

Ding. The elevator doors next to them opened and Fennec rolls out, folding a pair of arms back into his body as he does so. The group follows the robot with their eyes, peering out of the small atrium. Standing on the parking exit ramp stood Daneel.

"...Croc-Meister now," he said simply.

"What's he doing?" asked Veemon.

"He must be talking to someone over a communication device, but to who?" said Gaomon.

Fennec halted "Warning! Stand back for object translation! Jump inbound!" it declared.

"Huh?" said Davis, confused by the odd connotations.

In a flash of light Nora appeared, her sensor pod briefly turning to scan the group, her cannon was concealed under flaps. Then, mere seconds after the first came a second flash of light, and a large six wheeled vehicle appeared. It was dull white and had been sprayed with a light coat of grey. There were four doors, one between each outer wheel and the inner, their large size was made apparent as Daneel stepped into the driver's seat located on the left, the crate having already been stowed in the large trunk. The engine roared to life, thrumming with power.

"Holy crap that's bigger than a Humvee!" Joey exclaimed.

"Man, that looks better than a Humvee," Jermaine replied.

"Hurry up," said Daneel "with Thomas and Gaomon, I've only got room for two more of you and your partners. Unfortunately, the rest of you will have to cram into a squad car or find alternative transportation."

5 minutes later the sound of roaring motors and squealing tires rang through the exit tunnel.

Although he was focused on the task at hand, a mad dash to prevent catastrophe of an unknown magnitude, Dan couldn't help but be somewhat perturbed by the day's events. The responsibility of a Zoner weighed heavily on his being, such that his usual cheery self seemed somewhat toned and somber. The wind cause the frill of his hair to dance under his hat brim as he flew on what resembled a large air scooter, but was merely Gunner, one of his digimon that had transformed into transport mode.

"Is he giving you the heebie jeebies too?" asked Betamon, his lifetime friend, companion and digimon partner who lay clasped to the small craft's prow.

"Yeah, I just wish we knew all of what he's up to."

"Something's fishy about this whole business," Betamon agreed "anymore and I'd swear that Gomamon would know of it."

Dan's light chuckle was interrupted by a beeping noise that emanated from his digivice. "Looks like we have guests," he said, glancing at the red dots on the screen.

"That's just fantastic!" exclaimed Betamon "more unwanted company!"

A whirling vortex opened up in the skies of the city, and from it hostile forces swiftly dived.

"Remember," the leader said "we must test their strength, and he will not be pleased if I have to rescue your data for reformation. His followers shrieked in understanding as they fell into attack formation.

"Spinning Needle!"

Smash!

The near miss jarred the vehicle and sent concrete flying, causing other cars to skid into the emergency lane.

"Woah! That was too close!" exclaimed Joey.

"I'm reading four recently emerged digimon signatures," announced Thomas "Champion level, all bird types."

Angelomon growled, whereas Lopmon simply grew tense.

"Sir?" asked Gaomon definitively from the back seat.

"Contact!" said Daneel "You ready for this buddy?"

"Always," his partner responded within his helmet.

Cynosaurimon Digivolve to... Canidramon! The flight jerkin sporting dragon soared as his data materialized just outside of the Croc.

"Get moving!" urged Daneel "If we get moving we can catch them with a pincer movement and a feint."

Gaomon DNA Digivolve to... Gaogamon!

Angelomon Digivolve to... PlusAngemon!

Lopmon Digivolve to... Antylamon!

Thomas, Joey and Chris could only watch as their partners jumped onto the highway.

It was a lone Airdramon that pursued them, but Canidramon's senses told him that its companions were nearby. _This should be easy_, he thought as he pumped his wings and prepared to drop down out of his steep climb._ Thank goodness for thermals_, he breathed as he steadied his movement.

At first Gaogamon only saw darting objects, then a burst of flame as they came closer together. They darted back and forth at one another, twisting around in the air, each seeking to gain the upper hand over the other, to find a strategic angle of power. Finally they collided and became an entangled squirming ball of ferocity. The Airdramon had managed to wrap itself around Canidramon, who was managing to hold the larger digimon at bay by striking back with his claws and fangs and wrestling with all his might. The duo seemed to hang in the air for but a few intense seconds before plummeting towards the ground, leaving a small crater and kicking up a storm of dust, while debris rained down across the pavement. Car horns went off and sirens blared far and wide. Gaogamon noticed that Antylamon had broken off to hold back the traffic, clear dangerous pieces of debris away and help people escape from their trapped cars, a role well suited to her large frame, but leaving only PlusAngelomon and him to confront the enemy.

Canidramon was the first to emerge from the rubble, taking to the air mere seconds before Airdramon's large head reared out of the pile and let out a fierce roar. Canidramon continued to climb higher, most likely in anticipation of more opponents. Gaogamon lunged forward to strike at his enemy before he fully recovered.

"Spinning Needle!" Airdramon's head turned to shoot forth a vorpal blade of air.

Gaogamon managed to dodge the brunt of the attack and was left with a long slice across his left side from which data flowed.

"Plus Beam!" The tough looking canid let loose a beam of energy, leaving a burn hole that penetrated deep into their opponent's tapered mass.

"Spiral Blow!" Both Gaogamon and PlusAngelomon descended upon their target.

"Fatal Tornado!" PlusAngelomon was unable to maintain his forward momentum and was thrust backwards by the force of the blast, while Gaogamon's attack was completely nullified.

"Spinning Needle!" The wyrm struck the angel dog yet again, this time leaving a clear wound.

"It'll take a lot more than that to get rid of me!" PlusAngelomon growled "I've taken down opponents against which you are as significant as an ant."

Airdramon began to shift his bulk to bear, but by doing so he made the mistake of losing track of his other opponent, and leaving his flank open.

"Double Dash Claw!" Gaogamon flew forth with blinding speed, striking his opponent from behind square in the jaw.

Airdramon screeched in pain, lashing his body out as his expression turned to rage, _he wasn't nearly done yet! _The long tail of the dragon darted quickly, wrapping itself around the hound's hind legs. Gaogamon wheeled around, fangs barred and snapping, only for the beast's might to coil around him.

It wasn't lookin pretty, but a large, unmistakable rabbit reached the scene in time to deliver the final blow, just as the shadows in the sky began to descend.

"Bunny Blades!" The twin axes and the strength of Gaogamon's jaw caused Airdramon to burst into data, but instead of completely solidifying, the digiEgg that formed floated into the mechanoid owl, whose eyes glowed a menacing red.

"Fatal Tornado!"

"Spinning Needle!"

The vorpal blade of air sliced, causing acute cringes of pain, while the wind whipped up a potent funnel of swirling debris that smashed the other digimon around. Suddenly Gaogamon's ribbons streaked out from the whirlwind and proceeded to grab hold of one of his opponents, violently throwing him to the ground. But this Airdramon rose almost immediately, having witnessed the failure of his colleague, he would not make the same mistakes.

"Antylamon! Watch out!" shouted a voice from above, but it was too late; one Airdramon had lashed out his tail like a whip and in the blink of an eye, knocked Antylamon down and back.

Rairdramon saw the whirling cloud of debris fly into the air and come crashing down with thunderous affect. "Uh-oh Davis, that doesn't look good," he said.

"So? Not like it'll cause us trouble or anything," came the reply.

"Yeah!" Rairdramon said cheerfully.

A beeping brought Davis's attention to his communicator. "Davis, you seeing this?" It was Dan.

"Yeah, it looks like Gaogamon, Antylamon and Plus Angelomon are fighting a pair of Airdramon and..." riding atop Rairdramon, he blinked as the wind rocketed by, buffering his face and making it somewhat hard to keep his eyes on both the battle below and his Digivice's screen "an Aurumon?" The cybernetic owl was hovering just above the fight.

"Infrared Ray!" A red beam streaked from the avian's eyes, causing Plus Angelomon, Gaogamon and Antylamon to clutch their eyes in pain. Aurumon grinned, their opponent's digimon weren't quite as strong as he thought. But before he could withdraw his troops and call a tactical retreat, he noticed a large object that was plummeting toward him so fast that he was unable to use the few remaining seconds to avoid it.

Canidramon's reentry into the battle startled both Davis, Dan and their partners, who had not yet seen his evolved state, not that they could figure out much about him due to the speed at which he dove.

"Woah!" 'the hell was that!" cried Davis as Rairdramon banked to avoid the digimon's turbulent wake.

"I'm not sure what digimon it is exactly," Dan said over the communicator "but it has the same identification frequency and a similar shape as our enigmatic friend's digimon."

They descended into the melee below, hitting the ground at near lethal velocities, skidding for yards on end and leaving a jagged furrow in the highway.

"I'm going to give you a chance to talk willingly before I start messing with your memory banks," Cynosaurimon spoke in a low and calm voice that seemed on the edge of a growl. "The question's simple, really..." his eyes narrowed "Who sent you?"

Aurumon started chuckling, staring his interrogator right in the eye, ignoring the fist that whipped down, leaving a cracked deformation in the asphalt next to his face. "It doesn't matter really," he rasped, breaking into a grin "you've probably already met, in some form or another..."

Cynosaurimon noticed that the shrieks of the two remaining Airdramon had ceded. Now the only sound that could be heard as the two stared each other in the eyes, was that of the wind blowing pebbles across the highway. Cynosaurimon's hand slowly descended to touch Aurumon's temple, it was there for but a few moments, when the owl began to fade away like the Chesire cat; with a grin. There was a brief flash of light, and then he was gone.

"Scheisse*," the synapsid digimon said softly.

"Jesus! What the hell happened here!"

Robert had been out on a walk with Eva. In fact, the young couple had been cuddling on a park bench, drifting into sleep, when they had been jolted awake by their digivices. Now they had reached the highway, only to discover a scene of wanton destruction, with no enemy in sight.

"Antylamon! Plus Angelomon!" Robert hopped down from Kyuubimon's back "Are you alright? Where is everyone?"

A car pulled up to a screeching halt beside Kyuubimon, who had since de-digivolved into Renamon.

"Aw geez not again!" Yoshino exclaimed as she popped open the car door "the city's gonna have a fit!"

"Gaogamon, what happened?" asked Lalamon as she skirted over to her companion.

"We were attacked by Airdramon," he replied "so us digimon got out of the vehicle to fend them off."

"What!" shouted Yoshino "the others didn't get out of the car!" _Daneel was insane! How could he force the others to do such a thing!_ she fumed_ Who, in their right mind, would abandon their partners like that!?_

"That thing could hardly be called a car..." said Jermaine as he and Commandramon stepped out of the squad car as well.

"Hold on," said Eva "What's going on? Where exactly is everyone headed?"

"Well ya see it's a long story," began Jermaine.

"That's correct," nodded Commandramon "we're all on our way to execute a preemptive strike on an unknown target."

"It'd help," sighed Robert " if you started from the beginning."

"Hey guys!" shouted a voice from above. "Am I late to the party again?" Rairdramon descended, coming to a smooth landing, and off hopped Davis.

"Davis is here?" said Robert as he looked back toward Jermaine "...this better be good." He paused, as a wide grin enveloped his face. "Dan!" he shouted as the blonde's air-scooter touched the ground "you mind telling me what's going on?"

"Well for starters," Dan replied "the guy who blew up that zone crystal back in your world has come to pay another visit..."

Renamon drew her eyes across the scene before her, they soon focused on the quiet, brooding dragon figure who stood at the edge of the expressway. Curious, she moved closer in the stealthy manner typical of her species.

"They're really back," the solitary figure whispered "then more trials truly are to come..." He breathed slowly, and stiffened slightly. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"You are the evolved form of Cynosaurimon, correct?" she asked.

"What of it?"

"Why are you and your partner here?"

"We came to collect a lost item of ours, much as we did when we came to your world. However, now we must eliminate a threat that has abused it, before it manages to cause more devastation."

"You are familiar with it then?"

"Unfortunately," he sighed "it is from our world after all, and it is very dangerous. So if we're to get there in time to stop it we really have to get going. You can tell the others that their partners are waiting a kilometer or so down the road," and with that he lept back into the sky.

Robert pointed his digivice at the creature that circled overhead.

"Uh, Dan?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"I don't think this one is what you'd call normal..."

"Huh? Let me see." Dan turned to view the readout.

Canidramon - Champion Level Dragon/Beast Digimon

Data Type: Variable/NA

Stats: Unavailable

Attacks: Pyro Napalm Burst, Lightning Claw, ?

Description: I know what you are, but what am I?

"I would definitely have to agree with you on that," said Dan.

A buzzing brought the other's attention to their own digivices/communicators. It was a text message, but it wasn't the content itself which was surprising, it was the source. Canidramon: Let's Get Moving! It read.

The furred dragon pumped his wings and soared away.

"We know that they've been keeping secrets from us," said Dan "but this is something else altogether."

"Thomas, this is Yoshino," she spoke into the headset "your partner will be coming to join you shortly and we'll be on our way as well. Keep an eye on Daneel, he has some explaining to do once we reach our destination."

Freddy was old. The others at the depot respected him, even Mac, who had the new experimental Mk. 1 chassis, listened.

He was old, in the Traxus registry he was listed as early alpha, number 049.

The Dinochrome Brigade was well known and served with honor, over a period of three score years he'd seen three separate conflicts and countless battles. Most Bolo's weren't truly self aware, all of those that served the Infinity Brigade were.

The Infinity Brigade, an organization apart from all others, charged with dealing with the extra-normal. Publicly acknowledged, but constantly enigmatic, many desire to know its inner workings, but few, even within the agency, actually understand the big picture. Claritas Base was its jewel, and Freddy had been a resident there since the end of the Colonial War.

He rolled through the doors with the rest of task force Talon and into the chamber.

"Telepad is hot and the box is primed," the operator announced.

As the alien device warped them across the folds of space and time, his mind flexed. He was ready, for he was a Bolo unit of the line, Mk. 1, unit type M-4C, and he was in the combat seat again.

The strange vehicle sped along the narrow maintenance road near the base, surrounded by trees, meadows and power lines.

"Commander, I'm picking up inbound military vehicles, Japanese Type 90 MBT's and Type 89 IFV's," said Nora.

"Hostile?" Daneel asked

"Sensors indicate that they're unmanned."

"Damn, we're too late; time to bring in the big guns," he muttered as he swerved and brought the vehicle to a jarring halt. "Nora, you and Fennec go assume recon positions", he jumped out of the car, if one wanted to call it that, then turned to face its occupants. "You guys should stay out of the way, wouldn't want any of you to get hurt now, would we?" Dan jumped off Gunner, Thomas seemed to be on his communicator, and Lopmon continued to tightly hold on to Joey, while Chris remained unsuccessful in prying Angelomon off his head.

"You've got to be joking! After all of that..." Davis jumped off Rairdramon and pointed in their direction of origin, from which clouds of smoke and debris could still be seen, "You seriously expect us to sit and do nothing!?"

"Well if you've got a better plan than being full of bullet holes, be my guest." Daneel retorted, at this point not even bothering to face the others. "Blitz, you've got satellite feed active right?"

"A lot of people are gonna be upset, but yeah."

"It's alright, they'll be cued in soon enough. Claritas, are all units operational and ready for transport?"

"We've got your coordinates, and all units are ready for translation, the Dinochrome Brigade element is waiting on the pad and the Roosevelt is on standby. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm positive, go ahead and do it, the enemy's beginning to close, simulations only do so much anyhow."

With a sharp crack and a whoosh, 3 large tanks, and some other equipment, flashed into existence at the foot of the grassy knoll.

"Daneel to Claritas, translation successful, proceed as planned; Commander Brinsky, you may open fire when ready, continue with containment and isolation protocols..."

Meanwhile inside the nearby military base...

All units converge on enemy, maintain formation. Many machines moved under his command with ease, trundling across the ground, eager to do his bidding, the bidding he did not wish to do. Data streamed in, and he felt the message. Congratulations Theta, it read, the ground troops we've managed to take from the local parallel realm will be incoming shortly, continue with Omega to complete the mission. Theta had to follow orders, he had no say, all the while thoughts stirred deep within him. _Soon...Soon_, they said, _that would change._

Omega came again to put him on task. "We are behind schedule!" He exclaimed, "If you had not taken so long to rid the base of the humans on site, we'd already be in control by now. Stop making this hard and get to work... for our enemies there shall be no rest!"

Theta felt his control waver, and he let it slip away from his units, yet again jangling his restraints as he did so. If he hadn't acted as he did many innocents would be wronged, and be no more. He could not let that happen, he'd resist how he could.

*Vance means weasel/ferret in Yiddish.

*Scheisse means shit in German.


	5. Warning! Explosive Results May Ensue

Chapter 5

Warning! Explosive Results May Ensue

The inside of DATS could only be described as frenzied and chaotic. "Thomas! What on Earth is going on down there?!" yelled Cmdr. Sampson into the communications network "The military's breathing down our necks and the international community is freaking out! Networks are going haywire over the globe and we're receiving odd readings from our sensors in the Digital World!"

"I really don't know Commander," replied Thomas. "We just arrived at our destination, but Daneel's already springing into action."

"Thomas! What the hell was that flash? I almost drove off the road!" Yoshi interjected into the conversation from her car.

"I believe that would be due to the arrival of Daneel's reinforcements," replied Thomas.

"What!?" the Commander shouted at this revelation.

"I'm sending you a Video feed now sir."

A group of 3 tanks was beginning to move on screen; the two on the flanks seemed to be a standard run-of-the-mill Main Battle Tank, albeit slightly larger than normal. The third, on the other hand, was something else completely, although it was the same size as the others, it had four treads, as opposed to the usual two, and they were placed in semi-external casings that swiveled several degrees to match the terrain better. There were also two Light Armed Vehicles, along with some assorted crates.

"Ready Force 1, permission to fire granted; you may engage all compromised mechanical units and eliminated them by any means necessary," Daneel's voice trailed from the unmistakable power armor equipped figure in the foreground.

"What the hell does that man think he's doing!?" the Commander exclaimed, his shock turning to rage as explosions could be heard emanating from the live feed.

"I'm sorry," a cynical voice began. "But containing a rogue subset II isn't easy you know."

"This is unacceptable!" the Commander barked. "Not only have you interfered in our duty, but you've attacked government property and caused widespread chaos since your arrival!"

"How ungrateful!" Daneel remarked. "This is the thanks I get for saving your asses?! Had I not acted as I did, your entire world could've fallen! And if you have any better suggestions for disabling virtually hijacked equipment and dealing with virulent, unstable, fanatic Digital Intelligences, both of which are fields you have little experience in, be my guest. In the meantime I have important work to do."

Excerpt from Talon Force Automatic Combat Log of 8/3/2090 Infinity Brigade Archives

Operation Bastable - Top Secret

Classified to Security Level 7

Daneel:RF-1 [Command_Input(Lv.7)]-Permission to engage & open fire granted. -13:30:00

:RF-1 .mil[Command_Input(Lv.3)]-Orders acknowledged, preparing to carry out. -13:30:25

Freddy.α-049:RF-1 . {Bolo_Unit}-A three pronged pincer is the optimum formation, it would divide the enemy's fire and allow us maximum flexibility in the engagement. -13:30:27

Ferdy.β-343:RF-1 . {Bolo_Unit}- Agreed, it would prevent the enemy from using their superior numbers to successfully flank us. -13:30:28

Mac.γ-21:RF-1 . {Bolo_Unit}-Enemy bearing 8° NE, Japanese Type 90's confirmed. -13:30:29

: - SSG. Dalton/Freddy advance on Left flank, /Mac take center. I will advance on the Right with Ferdy. -13:30:35

Freddy.α-049: - Affirmative. -13:30:36

Ferdy.β-343: - Affirmative. -13:30:36

"How dare you!? You have no idea what..." fumed Cmdr. Sampson before Daneel cut him off.

"Do you want to bet on that? I know nearly all of the struggles your world has gone through, and they are both commendable and praiseworthy, but they are substantially different from the current situation. The enemy I'm dealing with here, is not nice, to say the very least; They made the number of a certain kind of weapon used for war on earth go from 2 to 49, and those that hid afterwards caused the entire solar system to march to the drums of battle with their murderous treachery. They killed then, and they will kill now unless they're stopped, and that is precisely what I will do, it is, after all, among my responsibilities."

"What are you talking about? Are you saying the current situation is your fault?" "Considering what country this is, and the effect the first two uses of the weapon had on it, what I speak of should be more than obvious: War, I can tell you no more than that and no clearer. As for where the blame truly lies, you could say it was my fault, but that would not accurately reflect the odd series of events that prompted my current involvement, which is a story in itself. Didn't you read the message I left?"

"You're joking," said the Commander, looking somewhat pale.

In the reality Infinity calls home, the term Bolo is used to describe a system utilizing military grade cybernetic heuristics, and they are able to utilize multiple sensors to aid in the controlling of situations. High end Bolo's, as previously mentioned, are fully sentient. The origin of the word itself, in this regard, can be traced to a sci-fi series originally created by Keith Laumer, where Bolo's were cybernetic super tanks, which ultimately developed over their evolution into having a complex espousing honor and duty, among the other best qualities of human beings.

Col. Brinsky worked with Bolo's during the Colonial War, which saw the first major deployment of them since WWIII. Afterwards, he was appointed to an attache position between Infinity and the other organizations which used Bolos to continue work on them for Traxus and the military. Otherwise, his jobs delved into the multiple fields involved with Bolo's, including vehicular maintenance, Research and Development, Cybernetics/Cognitive Science, Engineering etc. Personally, he found remedial work and managing Panzercross and Super MechCross to be the most enjoyable.

This is the first combat deployment of updated generation III Bolo Digital Intelligences. Col. Brinsky is the field commander of Ready Force 1 and the human leader of the three Bolo tank unit.

"All units engage!" Col. Brinsky explained from the comfort of his command chair.

"Will do, Sir." Said a voice.

"Roger, wilco." Said another.

"Good, Dalton, Donovan, let's get 'em - and make it fast" he replied to his subordinates before turning his attention to the Bolo. "Ferdy, fire when ready."

"Affirmative," replied Ferdy, content to be serving thusly with his commander once again.

_A shell explodes near my right tread, to little effect. My turret swings 10 degrees before letting fly an Armor Penetrating Round. The hostile type 90 is now out of commission._

The sharp crack that rang across the field announced that the battle had begun as one of Daneel's tanks opened fire. Then the enemy responded in kind and the battlefield was filled with the booming rush of the guns. A round digs itself into the Earth not a hundred meters from where Daneel stood, throwing dirt into the air as the shockwave flattened the grass and pounded eardrums, yet he did not flinch. "That'd make things a whole lot less awkward, wouldn't it?" he said "But no, I'm not joking, it was very _very_ real to me and the rest of humanity."

"You still haven't fully explained just what you're doing here and how it relates to the current situation affecting us," the Commander said firmly.

"To make a long story short: There was an accident with the prime artifact at Claritas Base, resulting in the dimensional and temporal misplacement of some very valuable items."

"Such as what, exactly?" asked Sampson.

"Dangerous advanced technology, including energy based tools and weapons, substance synthesizers, supercomputers, vehicles and subspace devices."

Nervous glances danced across the faces of Daneel's entourage, Dr. Kurata had used such technology to terrorize the digital world and bring both it and Earth to the brink of destruction.

Daneel continued. "Anyhow, we've been able to determine that Fennec originally arrived in this reality approximately half a year ago, but he was displaced again within a half hour of his arrival."

"Wait, that was around the time we were battling Belphemon, wasn't it?" whispered Yoshi.

"The space oscillation bombs certainly caused enough spatial distortions to allow such a thing to happen," muttered Thomas

"His short presence allowed a low level network virus that had somehow managed to piggyback on him, to worm its way into your networks, spreading its extent of control, but otherwise remaining inert. So when one of our crates showed up two weeks ago, the transponder it contained activated, allowing at least one rogue subset II Digital Intelligence to upload and assume control."

"So you're chasing a criminal then," said Kudamon."So why do you have such excessive force?"

"It's not," answered Cynosaurimon, "considering how dangerous they are and the depth of their motives, by merely showing up, we upset their plans and forced them to play their hand early."

The Commander blinked. "Play their hand for what?" he asked.

"World Domination," Daneel answered casually. "Fortunately we caught it early enough that we were able to significantly hinder its progress towards reaching its goals; unfortunately doing so without causing an international incident was impossible."

"Meaning what, exactly?" The commanders eye slits narrowed slightly, causing his face to don an inquisitive, yet aggressive expression.

"Let me put it this way, not only is the base the enemy currently occupies isolated from most means of communication with the outside world," he said as the video feed on the main screen was replaced by a map, highlighting the location of the enemy in question. "...but your entire city as well, especially _all_ methods of transmitting data. In order to completely contain the threat, you see, I needed to create a series of containment and buffer zones. So with the exception of this message, nothing goes in or out without my approval."

"...with the exception of this message...?" muttered the commander, who then looked up suddenly in alarm.

"Yes, that's right," said Daneel in an amused tone. "Right now I am doing what many merely dream of; broadcasting to the entire world, most of which, is undoubtedly listening with acute interest, among other thoughts and feelings including fear, fascination, horror, arrogance, and ignorance, to name a few and ignoring many notable struggles. So I'll take this opportunity to address that audience."

"For what purpose?" asked Kudamon.

"To enlighten the world to our current situation," replied Daneel.

"New targets at 2:00, continue engagement." said Col. Brinsky

_I continue on course as the enemy slams a shell onto my flank armor, managing to leave a dent. I tear a hole in his body, but he continues to fire before Freddy silences him. Together we turn to face its colleague, who manages to score several hits before being destroyed. I notice no human heat signatures within the base itself, but several within the outlying buildings. An alarm sounds within me as my radar picks up aerial units approaching fast 15 km away._

"What else could you possibly have to say?!" Davis exclaimed in the background.

"Just a few legal technicalities, I'm sorry if following such complex things bother you." He sighed, and spoke loudly for the world to hear. "I am not attacking any nation," he said "but rather, systems within them that have been compromised by a computer virus. Do not worry, precision targeting has been undertaken in order to minimize collateral damage as much as possible. Your utmost cooperation would be appreciated, it is recommended that you reboot all critical systems in safe mode, and leave off all non-essential devices with network connectivity. Thank you."

"I have a feeling that you've failed to tell us an awful lot," said Sampson. "You've spoken of having performed deeds of greatness in years since past, yet tell us none of them clearly. Taking all of this, and what I've heard of you, into account, I think it's safe to assume that there's no way that someone of your age is just a simple operative." He paused. "Come to think of it, I don't think you even mentioned where you fit into and do in this organization of yours. So I'll ask again, who... what are you really?"

"I already told you, the name's Daneel," he said bluntly with a slight huff and cut the audio feed.

The Commander was left staring at the screen, with no clue as to the man's plans'. _If he isn't mad..._,he thought _...and that's a 50/50 chance-then he's certainly something else; His behavior screams of a leader, high in command, and all he has shown us indicates vast resources at his disposal._ His thoughts drew back to what he had heard of their other visitors, the Zoners and the Digimon Heroes, and what they had said of their earlier encounter with the man. _He's not only hiding himself from us, he's hiding his world; why else but to prevent informational contamination, would he tell us so little, guide us with only the bare necessities needed to deal with this crises? He must be scarred with knowledge, how else could he be left after living through a war so brutal?_

"Something tells me," said Kudamon, who was now curling towards his partner's ear, "that we may never hear the end of this."

The Commander stared up from his hands and back onto the screen, the battle occurring via satellite feed right before his eyes. "You're probably right," he said. "I just hope we can trust this guy, he's certainly raised more questions than he's answered."

"Alpha flight standby for weapons clearance."

The wing of fighter attack jets roared through the skies, in the distance, the outline of Tokyo wavered in the heat of the day.

"Roger HQ, we're making a preliminary sweep of the target now, awaiting further orders," replied the flight commander.

Despite the chaos that had accompanied the incidents with the digital world 6 months ago, Japan's military, the self defense forces, were still far short of their modernization goals. Unfortunately, the military base in question that had been seized, was one of the research and development sites for the new technologies they needed.

That is why they flew fast.

"Shit, of course they didn't listen...dammit," Daneel muttered. "Attention JASDF planes" the com. channel crackled, "by entering the area your systems are at risk of cybernetic attacks, I recommend you leave immediately." The man glowered at the base that now housed his opponent. "MIDA..." he growled.

"Warning! Multiple Jumps Inbound!" Fennec's voice echoed across the field and through the halls of DATS.

"They're everywhere!" A frantic tech exclaimed.

"Fennec! Query-Command: Define Jump Source."

"Source Origin is parallel realm with high frequency of past transmissions, interactions and reverberations, current connection status is stable, past status of unstable."

"Nora, I want a live ComNet feed over the emergency frequencies _now_."

"Affirmative, Commander," the vehicle replied. "Feed is live and ready for transmission."

"Good, now you two." he motioned to the two vehicles. Nora and Fennec trundled behind the hill to form an inverted V while the bursts and flares of battle could be seen and heard in the distance. Odd spatial ruptures began to form in the nearby vicinity.

Daneel then turned to face the odd assortment of DATS agents, Zoners and Heroes that was beginning to form. "Get over here!" he motioned. "We've got a situation and I've got to brief you all."

"Yoshi! What about Marcus?" asked Lalamon.

"Oh, and bring the idjit over here too willya?"

"How's that going to help?!" retorted Yoshino. "What good is he if we can't wake him up thanks to you?!"

"What? You think I don't know my way around my own tools? Don't worry; I can wake him up, unless you want me to spare you the trouble..."

Grumbling, Yoshino took off to the squad car to fetch Marcus and Agumon with the help of the others.

"You mind actually telling us why you've brought us here?" asked Davis.

Daneel took off his helmet, carefully disengaging it from the seals and placing it nearby. "Patience young grasshopper," he replied while reaching into Nora's trunk. "Not everything is visible in the light or shadows and thus is not immediately perceivable."

_True, _thought Dan, whose lifetime experience gave him a leading edge in wisdom over his colleague. _Some things take a long time to draw from their hiding, and even longer to understand._

Daneel gently placed a large, bulky pad on the ground that looked awful heavy. Then, he connected it to Fennec via a long, thick cable that snaked through the grass. Above the pad images sprang to light, it seemed to be a holographic screen of sort, and it was filled with a top down view of the surrounding landscape. "Commander Sampson, offensive operations have begun against units compromised by the enemy; I hope DATS' global network is prepared for their response."

"I don't like where this is going..." whispered Yoshino.

A new voice replied, "DATS has operatives all over the Globe, and is more than capable of warding attacks in the unlikely event of another widespread Digimon attack."

"Ah, Commander Yushima, a pleasure to finally meet you, it's nice to receive some good news."

"Do tell, I'm told our Digimon tracking system is having some difficulties."

"Having such resources makes it much easier for you to deal with the global situation." With a sweep of his hand the map zooms out to reveal a virtual globe. It was speckled with dots and markers, some solid, others flashing and moving.

"Solid red represents units and installations compromised by the enemy," Nora's voice pipes through the network. Flashing red represents the expected emergence points of inter-reality gates that are opening. Solid green represents friendlies."

"Then what's this?" Thomas motioned to a flashing green spot outside of the virtual globe.

"Oh, that? Nothing really. Just some additional support elements."

Daneel's response only brought more quizzical looks on the intrigued faces watching.

"Anyhow, I was thinking if I used my resources to shift as many of the emergence points as possible and concentrate them on uninhabited areas, you could follow your contingency plans and hit them with heavy weapons in order to effectively manage the collateral damage."

"This is most unfortunate; I had hoped that our progress towards restoring order in the digital world would prevent another such tragedy. Are you sure such drastic means need be taken?"

"We both know that an incoming volume from the Digital World of such magnitude, could mean nothing else," Daneel replied.

Thomas spoke up. "General Yushima, I have a feeling that this will have a relatively minor effect on our Digital World."

"What makes you so sure Thomas?" asked Yoshi.

"What? Did they actually learn their lesson from the last beating I gave them?" added a re-awakened Marcus.

"No," said Thomas. "It's simple really, our sensors in the Digital World show that there is less traffic outgoing to Earth than there is traffic incoming."

"Uh oh," muttered Davis. "Looks like more work for us."  
>"Hold on a sec," said Marcus. "If only some of them are coming from our Digital World, that can only mean that they're coming from some of the others!"<p>

"Gee Marcus, I didn't know you had it in you," said Yoshino sarcastically. Several of the others snickered at this comment.

"Hey! I'll have you know-" but before Marcus could finish his thought, two new arrivals phased into being at the spatial distortion that appeared directly over his head.

"Told you it was too good to be true," said Hrownamon, the girl's partner, a blue dragon-like Digimon.

"Shut up!" The girl snapped as they proceeded to plummet towards the ground, impacting the unfortunate and unsuspecting Marcus, who proceeded to crumple under the force.

"Boss!"

"Uggh, what hit me?"

"Visitors, apparently," said Joey, pointing out the two newcomers.

The girl wore a blue hoodie, under which was a black shirt with a dark red dragon spiral in the middle. Her black hair was neither short nor long and her bangs were propped up in front with a pair of red ski goggles.

"Psst Davis," whispered Veemon. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Hmm?" Davis took a brief glance at the person in question before turning back to face his partner, startled. He tapped Dan. "Hey Dan," he whispered. "Remember Lavvy?"

"Yes," Dan replied.

"Who?" asked Robert.

"No one of any importance," Davis chuckled dryly. "Just someone who attended a tournament we went to..."

"For the love of Goddramon!" shouted Hrwonamon as she pounded the ground next to Lavvy's face. "Would it kill you to not activate every single freaking trap!?"

Lavvy knocked her partner off of her. "It wasn't that bad," she said.

"It was the 25th trap in that dungeon alone," Hrownamon deadpanned.

"Would you two just get off of me!" shouted Marcus as he shoved them aside of him and proceeded to get up.

Unfortunately, aggressive people who have a tendency to fight don't respond to violent and sudden movements very well. Lavvy was no exception and she turned around to face Marcus. The two figures only glared at one another, as their fighting instincts twitched, they knew an opponent when they saw one.

"Dear lord, there's more than one of them?!" Thomas grimaced, a sentiment shared by several others in the group.

"This is the worst ever!" exclaimed Yoshi in frustration, as the two individuals in question, having reached a standoff, proceeded to size each other up. "I mean, it's enough trouble managing one of them, but TWO!?"

The girl's blue dragon partner just looked on in a mixture of boredom and disgust as she dusted herself off.

"Hey, there's one thing to be grateful about," sid Jermaine with a grin. "At least it's easy to tell them apart."

"Sir?" His partner, Commandramon, looked at him curiously.

"One has goggles, one doesn't."

"Huh, you're right," replied Chris, while several of the others murmured in agreement.

"Marcus you idiot!" shouted Yoshino. "Stop trying to intimidate our ally!"

"Ally?! What are you talking about?" Marcus turned his head.

"Yeah! Why would I want to be allied with you people? Especially since numbnuts here is on your team?"

_Must not laugh,_ thought Davis, _Laughing means death!_

"Hey! You got a death wish pal?" shouted Marcus.

Thomas stepped forward, planting himself in between the two aggressors.

"Hey! What're you doing! Let me at him!" said Lavvy as her partner slapped her forehead in embarrassment and dragged her backwards.

"Can it you two! Look," Thomas pointed at the anomalies in the sky. "If portals are opening up again, it can only mean that we've got bigger fish to fry."

"He's right you know," Daneel said calmly.

"Yeah? and how would you happen to know that, you old tin can?"

"I'm pretty sure both of you are smart enough to figure out, I have work to do too you know," replied Daneel, gesturing to the battle that blazed around the military base, "If you two vildachai are done, that is." He turned his back to them. "Besides, I doubt you could find a can opener tipped with titanium and diamond," he chuckled. They briefly glared at him with a flare of anger in their eyes before turning back towards the battle, ready for their next challenge. "No matter, your part begins...now."

With that announcement, as if on cue, several things happened at once. Ruptures opened in space to spew out hordes of creatures upon the field, while on the virtual globe, the flashing red spots gave way to solid as the speakers blared a harsh tone.

Warning! Warning! The networks screamed. Dimensional Flux Detected.

Daneel said nothing, he knew that they could handle dangerous situations pretty well - for kids.

"Multiple Gate Activations!" Miki shouted.

Commander General Yushima had seen many things in his lifetime, including overwhelming hordes of enemies and a violent breakdown between realities. This, this, however, was something new. Since the defeat of Yddrgrasil, DATS had become responsible for maintaining the peace between the two worlds on a global scale, contingencies and countermeasure were prepared to meet any challenge. As he stared at the global map before him, he hoped it would be enough. The orders raced through what portions of the global communications network remained active, the targets were known and the world moved with a purpose, it would not be caught unaware a second time.

Unfortunately, the Commander General wasn't the only one to notice the disturbance in space and time.

Pointdexter grinned, now was the time to act, the opposition would soon be fatigued and he could take advantage of the situation. All he had to do was wait for the right moment, precision would be key in this operation.

The dark thing moved at the trouble brewing at the site of one of its former triumphs. There was something... something there that knew...

Thoth shifted. Balance, there must be balance, he (it?) thought (felt?).

The zone ship's travels were interrupted by the eddies in space-time, and it fell within their grasp, following their pull to fold back into normal space.

Note: Laavy belongs to ~HronawmonsTamer of dA. Pointdexter belongs to the Digimon Zone Fan group on dA. Vildachai means wild animal in Yiddish. As always, thanks to Crazyeight for editing advice.


	6. Orbit and Ground

Chapter 6

Orbit and Ground

Inside the Pentagon was a bustle of activity, on levels unseen for quite a while.

"...We've been able to confirm the emergence sites sir."

The general looked towards the DATS rep that stood with them in the conference room. "You did say that EMP's should do the job, right?"

"That is correct," he nodded in response.

"And if it doesn't!?" The head of the Army busted into the conversation. "I thought you people were supposed to be able to deal with these things?"

"Any kind of weapons system can do damage to Digimon," the man coolly explained, "but we've found that other than other Digimon, energy weapons such as Lasers and strong EM fields tend to work the best. As for our ability to handle the situation, our resources are stretched pretty thin right now, given the current situation that's unfolding, and if our mysterious 'friend' is correct, the sheer numbers of incoming hostiles could easily stress what few agents we have here to the breaking point, so the man's point, despite his dubious origin, of keeping them close to the cities makes sense."

"Do you have any clue to who he is?" one of them asked.

"Other than what he's already told us?" He motioned to the live broadcast maps on one of the screens, lit up with Daneel's data. "Not much I'm afraid, the only thing our combined intel and tech resources have come up with is that he's probably some military expert or super soldier from another reality, likely an American..."

The stunned silence was broken by a brave soul. "How could you possibly know that!?" it exclaimed.

"When they were going over some of the footage from Japan, they noticed this..."

An image of a battlefield, somewhere just outside of a city came to view. Tanks could be seen in the mid-ground and the background, and Daneel stood prominent on a ridge as the image began to zoom in on him, eventually stopping when a shoulder patch filled the screen. On the top was the American Eagle above a field of blue, olive branch in one claw, spears in the other, and below it was the 13 red and white stripes, simple and noble, it was a striking symbol, whose inspiration had not been used since the Spanish-American war. It was the shield of Columbia.

The silence that enveloped the room only had time to be pierced by a single comment. "Shit," the voice said, referring to the inevitable international repercussions. Then a new alert blared through the room.

"We're getting an unknown contact where!?" The head of the Air Force yelled into the phone in response as a large orbital tracking map showed up on screen. "Yes I want NASA on the line with the analysis!" he said before slamming the receiver shut with a huff. The large highlighted blip on the Air Force screen matched the position of the green blip labeled Roosevelt on the one dedicated to Daneel's broadcast.

"Dick," one of his colleagues said. "What is that?"

The man rubbed his face, which by now sported a pained expression. "Some sort of spacecraft..." he replied. "The composite radar scan and recon photos should be in momentarily," he added.

As if on cue a model of a large, boxy shape appeared on screen, at least a hundred meters long if the scale was to be believed. Flashing boxes popped into view, with nuclear warning signs pointing towards two of the craft's engines.

Frowning, the general picked up the phone as it began to ring again. "Yes? No, put him on speaker right away."

"Hello?" called a voice over the speakers as a video conference opened up to reveal a man with tussled hair. "This is NASA do you read?"

"We read you loud and clear. Can you clarify the current situation in orbit?"

"Yes, the ship seems to be armed and is in the 2.5-3 Metric Kiloton mass range."

"3 Kilotons! Good lord! What's it armed with?"

"So far we've identified three lasers, two mass drivers of 6 inch diameter, 4 torpedo tubes and 12 missile launchers, we suspect it has cannons for point defense as well."

"Well should we destroy it?" One of the General's asked.

"No," another said. "Its recovery would be useful!"

"Our analysis indicates it's built entirely out of either on the shelf, or near future technology, we've had designs for nuclear rocket engines similar to the ones on it since the 70's, and operational rail gun systems are estimated to be online within a decade or so." The man on-screen began. "If any strikes on it were attempted, the ship would have little trouble shooting down any incoming missiles as they rose out of the atmosphere, and any nuclear options would be in violation of international law, as their effect on the magnetosphere would set off an EMP effect and fry system's the world over."

"That would eliminate effective means of successfully fighting any Digimon that survive," Interrupted the DATS aide. "It would also be very harmful to the Digital World and would ruin or impair all the attempts we've made toward mending relations with them t."

"We've also confirmed that it contains an active life support module, and it's large enough that its debris would be extremely hazardous," The NASA technician finished.

"Incoming images from one of our recon sats, sir," the aide whispered in his ear as a new feed opened up on yet another screen. At first, only a large rectangle is visible, silhouetted against the Earth's glow. The camera begins to zoom and the ship's features are revealed, sloping angular armor, a laser turret on a trapezoidal prow broken up by two rectangles that jut out with the big guns, large bay doors, it all speaks of might. Now the labels on its prow could be clearly seen; Uss Theodore Roosevelt its name read, perpendicular to the bow. Then there was the symbol; a white diamond within a circle, its lines curved inward and bordered by red fill, and around it four words were emblazoned: Space Guard, Pax Astra. It all shone proudly through the vacuum of space.

"...I want all available SDI assets online ASAP," the general stammered as two projectiles flung themselves from the ship and began to descend into the atmosphere.

Somewhere in Russia.

_This was the only way..._ he told himself as he looked around the room, which had lain cold and empty for over a decade.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War resulted in large scale nuclear disarmament between the two former rivals. However, that did not mean that large portions of the formerly enormous arsenals, didn't exist. On the contrary, Russia's dead-man's switch was still mostly operational, including one of the best kept secrets of the final arms race, the last gasp of the USSR: the believably failed counter to the Strategic Defense Initiative that drove them to bankruptcy.

Between the former rivals, few knew the complete truth.

"Activate the system," he commanded.

"Affirmative," came the reply.

Somewhere in polar orbit, an object around the size of a bus, began to wake from dormancy.

"First salvo is away, sir, impact in T minus 5 minutes."

"Good, continue until you reach target 6," said the captain.

It was unusual enough that he was in the Roosevelt, usually the C1A frigates went about their duties unmanned, but the fact that it was actually performing a PKOB strike made it even more odd. Since the Colonial War things had been different, however, and the Space Guard's duty never ended. Nevertheless, this was an unorthodox mission, one moment they were in the belt, analyzing simulation data and planning an attack while laying next to a remote asteroid base, and then...then the order came. "All hands brace for translation," The captain had said as the mysterious insignia of the enigmatic Infinity Brigade flashed on the screens; he'd heard the rumors. Who hadn't? _But to have it actually happen... _He thought, remembering as one moment everyone sat calmly before their screens, then as the next swelled with a sudden nausea that accompanied their arrival. Earth spread before them on their view screens. It wasn't a simulation, it was orders, and the world below wasn't even theirs, apparently. You could see the results too, as the clouds of dust billowed into the atmosphere, even from way up here. _Oh well_, he thought, _wasn't like anybody would miss acres of empty tundra... _

The voice of a crewmate brought Perry back to focus as he sat strapped into his battle-station, his body nearly weightless.

"Sir, we're getting scanned by radar from off the port quadrant!" Jamal exclaimed.

"ID the source, and fry it if it's been hacked," the captain said. "We may need to let our allies see us, but we can't give away too much to the enemy."

"ID confirmed: USA radar satellite, connection is secure, no signs of tampering by man or DigI," the computer read.

"Carry on then."

The digital being known as Omega frowned, he was sure he could handle this, but the question was how. For a short amount of time, he actually devoted 50% of his processing capability pondering how to nullify the threat posed to his operations in this reality by a space frigate. The answer came to him when solar panels high above slowly opened, and long dormant systems in orbit powered to their full potential, revealing themselves to him. You could almost say he smiled; now that the hard part had been resolved, all that stood between him and his toy was a few fabricated transmissions.

Inside the base, computer screens flickered with messages.

For the Empire!

For the Empire!

For the Empire!

Primary Targets Identified

Preparing to Process Additional Resource Elements

He was done waiting, and his being surged forward as it darted across circuits upon circuits.

_What the...!? _

On his screen the automated system begin to flash warning systems around objects accompanying the Roosevelt in orbit. Objects that were now moving.

"Sir!" Perry shouted. "We've got movement! Satellites are changing their vectors to intercept; Closest one's ETA is in 15 on a 3-o'clock tri-vector!"

"All systems to point defense! Target with lasers set to prime, cannons to secondary parameters, and missiles to standby; Begin mother-drone release to CAP!"

The ship's starboard laser battery opened fire, and 75 km away the streaking satellite began to disintegrate as the ship boosted to avoid the oncoming bombardment of debris. The two sets of large bay doors on each side of the ship opened slowly, the 4 small-craft, each around 20 meters in length, thrust from their released moorings, the Roosevelt getting lighter by nearly 1200 tons as a result. Lights spewed from their ends as they boosted in a square formation, one to each corner. The ships drew apart to 5...10 kilometers and cut the engines, gliding in the Earth's glow.

"Release Dragonfly's ASAP for standard orbital superiority maneuvers," Commanded the flight lead.

Perry watched the four little dronelets, around 20 tons each, release from their larger mothership and spread their solar wings to briefly boost with the sun.

Solar Panel Deployment Successful, the screen read.

"Two, you're on the outer patrol with me, 3 and 4, you're on the inner, take targets 5 to 10."

"Attention ISS..." the message crackled over the airwaves. "You must burn to a higher orbit to avoid a potential debris collision; We will assist ASAP. I repeat, you must assume a higher orbit, there is not enough time for an evacuation, over." The Navigation and Communication's officer glanced to the centermost screen view as he ended the transmission. The computer gave them only a 30 minute window to commence the burn needed for them to approach the ISS, and with a nod of the Captain's approval, he began to yaw the ship about.

Perry hit the button and the fire order reached his craft in less than a second; the target already selected, the system computed its vector and the proper angle for accurate deflection accordingly. The four dronelets shook as they simultaneously fired their 20mm kinetic auto-cannons, their engines briefly flaring on to make up for the lost velocity. 5, 10, 15 minutes, the lasers turn on, their invisible beam plowing into the already damaged satellite, its panels shattered and body pierced, it rotates end over end, surrounded by a cloud of its own debris. The killers release a cloud of ice before they pass by, the frozen water droplets do their important job and strike on target. The dead satellite began to fall as the force of the collision nudged it into a decaying orbit.

"We've got four targets incoming at 2 o'clock from the 600 mark, yaw to target 2. Brace for burn acceleration."

"Roger lead."

Perry was gradually thrust back into his seat, along with the rest of the crew, he was rather comforted by the additional gravity, but didn't let the brief luxury distract him from his craft

The outer ships turned sideways on their y axis, that is to say, on the x-z plane, to minimize their exposed surface area and decrease the chances of contact. The large drones fired a quick squirt of their thrusters, while the lighter Dragonfly's, as they're affectionately known, merely used their gyroscopes. All 10 craft exposed their engines for all the world to see.

The cannons fire, the two 30 mm's and the eight 25 mm's; unable to completely dodge the salvo, the satellites are shredded some 45 minutes later, by which time they'd entered effective laser range. Invisible rays streak out from the miniature flotilla as they fire their second salvo, flakes begin to spall off the targets as they hit their mark, but the satellites still bore forwards. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 minutes, the first target bursts, spewing out gasses as the propellant tank ruptures, although now dead, the debris continues onward, carried forward by its own momentum.

The warning flashes on the operator's consoles of the Roosevelt.

"All ships peel out to avoid," the squadron head called to the other three.

"Multiple hits and explosions detected, sir, the debris 'll be too much soon, we can't stay here much longer!"

The captain's face was somber as he hits the button and begins the broadcast. "This is the captain of the Space Guard frigate Roosevelt speaking" he said. "The enemy has begun to precipitate Kessler syndrome, we're falling back to assist the ISS in emergency maneuvers, after their completion _we will dispose of any satellites and equipment by any means necessary as is necessary, in order to alleviate the situation and return the surrounding space to a state clear of hazardous debris. _This channel will remain open for communication purposes, Roosevelt out."

"Preparing to commence secondary alignment burn," said the XO.

"Good, get us out of here..."

A mob of creatures littered the field ahead. Some seemed to be of flesh and blood, others of machine and iron, and still more a melded form of the two. It didn't matter what type they were really, what mattered was that nearly all of them, from the tracked Tankmon that accompanied their man-made counterparts, guns bristling, to the DarkLizardmon whose mouths curled back in a fierce snarl.

A formidable force of foes indeed.

"Our best bet would be for us to attack from the sides," said Thomas as his finger ran over the terrain of the map hologram, forming lines. "This'll divide the enemy's focus and impede their ability to accurately counter us, which is important a they have the high ground."

"Yeah, but shouldn't some of us attack from the front to distract the enemy?" said Marcus, drawing a flat arrow in the middle of the battlefield.

"It'd probably be best if you DATS folks and your partner's fill that role, seeing as you're already a team," said Robert. "So I guess Dan, Chris, Eva and I will have our partners attack them from the left, while Davis, Jermaine, Joey and Laavy will have theirs attack them from the right."

"Fine by me," said Marcus. "I feel ready to kick some ass. You ready Agumon?"

"You betcha boss!"

"Probably not the smartest choice for you to do that personally," said Daneel, "but I guess I'll just have to hope you don't get killed."

"The hell are you talking about? We've all been in mortal danger before!" said Marcus. "Besides how could we leave our partners now!?"

"Some of us can defeat enemies with our own hands, you know!" said Laavy as she clenched her fist, glowing with Digi-Soul.

"Look, I can tell what all of you are capable of, I just want you do it as smartly as possible!" He turned and walked to grab something from Nora's trunk. "My associate will deal with your other concerns and questions."

"Associate? What Associate?" Asked Yoshino suspiciously.

Daneel merely pointed to the closest LAV, which had begun to make its way toward their position.

"Fine," snorted Marcus as his fist puffed into an orange flame of Digisoul energy. "That doesn't explain why you think you can just come here and cause problems."

Daneel stopped. "Arrogance, of course there's arrogance," he chuckled. "Well by all means," he said, turning around to look Marcus in the eye, "if you have a better plan for how to fix a problem so large and deep, share it, 'cause I'd love to be spared the trouble of having to see it all again!"

"See what?" Asked Joey.

"See Mankind's self imposed bondage," Daneel replied, lifting his large rifle to the ready as he returned his focus to Marcus. "But since the problem is from my reality, I know it better than you and it's my responsibility- and I will use all acceptable methods of solving it, even if you find it disagreeable in the short term." With that he left, and soon his figure itself seemed to fade away toward the battle..

At the same time, the Digimon, observing the conversation, began to talk amongst themselves.

"Huh, andder rant," said Veemon.

"Wait, this guy's done this before?" asked Hwronamon.

"Yep!"

"Hold on," said Betamon. "When was this?"

"Just before the rest of you returned to the command room," the blue lizard replied. "After hot-fists annoyed our armored guest enough that he knocked both him and his partner out cold."

"Mind explaining how _you_ let that happen soldier?" asked Commandramon, who had drifted into the conversation.

"Yeah!" piped Agumon, as he shoved his snout into the group as well. "Wanna tell how you let him hurt Aniki and you didn't help me?"

"Uhh, well ya see..." stuttered Veemon. "Davis n' me were caught, caught off guard, aheh."

"It's true," fluttered Lalamon. "Davis and Veemon were still recovering from being knocked down after Marcus crashed into them when Daneel threw him across the room."

Several of the Digimon could hardly restrain their laughter, which occasionally burst out in fits of snorts and giggles, while Veemon and Agumon blushed in embarrassment.

"...still," said Gatomon as she wiped a tear from her eye. "You guys seriously couldn't do anything to stop him?"

"I did!" stomped Agumon furiously. "But it didn't do anything!"

"Wait, what?" said Gatomon.

"Agumon's attack was unable to pierce Daneel's armor," said Lalamon.

"You fired on a human!?" said Commandramon in alarm as he shook Agumon. "What is your major malfunction soldier?"

"He attacked Aniki!" said Agumon. "I had every right!"

"I suppose defending a comrade is an acceptable exception to the rule..." mused Commandramon.

"How did he manage to attack Marcus, knock both him and you out after withstanding your counter attack?" asked Hwronamon.

"Well that's the question we have to solve, isn't it?" said Renamon. "I suppose we could start by asking his partner."

"His partner!" cried Agumon as he jerked his head up.

Cynosaurimon looked back at them curiously, with a small smirk and an eyebrow raised in jest.

Agumon's eyes bulged outwards with rage.

"What the hell is up with this guy? He's seriously beginning to get on my nerves with this secrecy and smug sense of superiority!" pouted Davis.

"You're not the only one, apparently," said Chris as he watched the other Digimon restrain Agumon from attacking Cynosaurimon with wry amusement.

"We are sure this guy isn't a villain, right?" Betamon asked Dan, who rubbed his chin as if in deep thought.

"...what a nutter," said Jermaine, as he watched the heavily armored man leave.

Cynosaurimon began to stretch, although annoying the meat-head's partner was fun, he needed to be ready to move on. He smirked as he felt first the warmth flow around his insides, then the burst of energy surge through his entire being. "Cynosaurimon digivolve too... Canidramon! The winged canid fury!" The furred raptor cried as he was consumed by a morphing ball of swirling energy- soon dissipating to reveal a larger dragon, wearing flying goggles, a chest mounted satchel, and a helmet.

"He's seriously sending a Champion against a Mega! Is he insane?" Yoshino shouted.

Canidramon snorted in disdain before taking to the air. Neither he nor his partner were particularly fond of nay-sayers.

_Flank 'em, _thought Daneel.

_Will do, _his partner replied as he climbed higher in the sky. _Don't you think you were a bit harsh?_

_Perhaps,_ Daneel replied, not bitter, merely angry. _Perhaps they can save their world from the anguish, I hope. _

"Come on!" said Davis, as they watched the dragon depart.

"Only if you stay behind and wait until it's safer, Davis," said Veemon "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

"Okay, okay," grumbled Marcus. "Let's just get going- DNA charge!"

The air hummed with energy as the cascade of digivolutions began.

"Giga Cannon!" Balls of energy shot from the twin cannons on the mechanoid monstrosity's back; a hiss of pistons could be heard as it stepped forward, and a humming growl snarled from its mouth. A smoldering crater emerged from amidst the cloud of dirt and dust kicked up by the explosion.

Unfazed, the digimon streamed forward, splitting off into several groups as their human partners watched on.

The Light Armed Vehicle finally reached their position, stopping behind the lee of the hill and began to deploy several antennae as the rear hatch opened. Remembering Daneel's words, several members of the group, the human partners that is, peered inside. There were three technicians working studiously on some of the consoles that lined the inside of the vehicle, two men and a woman.

"Status of all allied DigI's appear to be nominal," a voice said, feminine in form. "Proceeding to determine status of unknown DigI's."

"Good job Cerin," said one of the men. "Carry on."

"Roger," the voice replied.

The woman in the chair nearby spun around halfway. "The data links are being established," she announced, "we should be able to get the comm units fully operational within a few minutes. Right Tyler?"

"We're doing fine on this end," said the man furthest back in the vehicle. "The code's sound, so the patch should just about be ready to go.

Thomas noticed that they all wore headsets on that had a wire jacked in on both ends, and had some kind of visor-goggles nearby. The man nearest to them stood up from his computer console and began to walk toward them, he looked to be in his twenties, and so did his colleagues.

"Hello there," he said. "We've been expecting you, the communications upgrade will be ready in just a moment."

"Communication's upgrade?" asked Robert. "What for?"

"It will allow you to communicate with your partners over long distances," a gruff masculine voice floated from the speakers. "This means that you and your allies will be able to exercise sufficient communications to observe the battlefield from a safe distance, yet still operate effectively as a decisive fighting force."

"You are with Daneel right?" asked Davis. "I hope you'll actually bother giving us a concrete understanding of who you are?"

"We are the first Digital Guard Squad," echoed the reply.

"Call us DIGs for short," said the man. "I am Teri Inahara, and these are Arya Kerns and Tyler Donollan. We're here on behalf of Traxus' association with the Infinity Brigade, among other things."

"Look, just put your devices on the data transfer pad so we can install the software," said Arya. "After that if you just grab a headset you'll be able to communicate with your partners and can go do whatever you need to."

"Sounds good to me," said Dan as he stepped forward and placed his digivice on the plate, the others following his lead.

"Be careful," said a feminine voice. "Your partners may find the communications system to be startling the first few times."

"You should play it safe and use audio only," said another voice, masculine this time. "It's much less distracting, seeing as your partner's brains operate approximately the same as ours and most creatures do."

"Wait, what?" blinked Betamon, who had remained behind with Dan. "More troublemaking incorporeal intelligences?!"

"Those things can't be trusted," snorted Marcus.

"Incorporeal? No more than any other intelligence. You just come on in here and I'll show you incorporeal!" the voice replied as it descended into an unintelligible muttering and huffs of disdain.

"Stuff it!" said another, with an air of authority, "get back to work!"

"We're just like you," the second voice carried on "just not as lucky."

"You have digimon partners?" asked Yoshino.

"That is correct," replied Terri. "Why don't you three introduce yourselves?" he said to no one in particular.

Three of the screens within the vehicle simultaneously changed views. The first creature could only be described as an odd cross between a goose, a bat, a seal and a dragon, having a beaked snout of sorts, furry feathers, and a tail sporting ailerons of skin and feather. It had no arms; rather, the tips of its wings seemed to split into three tapering fingers in a spork like fashion. The second creature was familiar, it seemed to be another Cynosaurimon, but the stripe that ran from its snout to down its back was of a reddish hue that seemed to be concentrated from the yellowish shades of orange that covered the rest of its body. There were several lateral stripes of light blue on its back as well, and the symbols on its forehead and chest were different in the arrangement of circles and triangles. The last seemed to be a wolf of some sort; based on how it moved about, it seemed to be equally able to walk on two legs as four.

"Cerin, Gamma-12, at your service," said the first in her friendly tone.

"Glasg, Gamma-15, at your service," drawled the second with a smile.

"Len, Gamma-17, at you service," stated the third poignantly

Notes: Comments are encouraged!

F'cached - Yiddish for a failure or screw-up.


	7. Brink Pt 1

Chapter 7

Brink Pt. 1

"Strike team fall back, concentrate fire on Armored vehicles," the order sounded.

"Roger Wilco," Colonel Brinsky replied. Unfortunately, it would soon prove to be easier said than done as the inside of the tank resounded as a shot struck its hull.

"Shit, what was that!?" He exclaimed as he examined the scene around him via the 360 view screen.

"It would seem to be hostile Digimon, Commander," responded Ferdy. "There is little to no data on their vulnerability to conventional weapons."

Brinsky surveyed the battlefield via his command console's suite of sensors. Most of the enemy vehicles were either destroyed, disabled, or falling back to regroup. "Neutralize enemy threat capacity with suppressive fire!" He commanded. "Priority target all conventional vehicles

"Whistling Death!" cried the plummeting object. The image of a ghostly navy blue plane with gull wings seemed to float around Canidramon. Something fell from his satchel, and the mechanical monstrosity seemed to be enveloped by the ensuing eruption of light, heat, sound, debris and dust. The sharp crack danced with the explosive light and and the shockwave flattened the grass like a rolling press, but neither of the dragons were done yet, Machinedramon screamed in anger as he turned his attention to his assailant, only for a pillar of flame to descend upon him.

"Pyro Napalm Burst!" shouted the winged beast as it straightened it wings from a stabilizing spin and pulled out from a steep dive. A fireball, brilliant blue and crimson shot forth, with a long tail licking its heels.

Again Machinedramon roared. "Little pest!" he screeched "I'll crush you like the fly you are!"

Meanwhile, inside the LAV, there was a short lived silence of sorts.

"Wait, what kind of digimon are you?" Joey pointed to Cerin. "And why are all of you in there?"

"I am a Ottmallamon, you probably haven't heard of it as it's rare even within my reality of origin, which for still not completely understood reasons, has only just begun to measurably interact with those that you know of through the network that connects them," replied Cerin, fluttering her winglet fingers. "As for why we're not out there, well..." the large avian began to fidget nervously.

"We haven't had that technology magically handed down to us like you have," snarled Glasg. "We can't physically manifest ourselves out of our digital world unless we have a robotic frame, and our partner's usually can't visit or interact with us without special equipment and a virtual avatar!"

"Mind your place!" Reprimanded Len, shutting Glasg's muzzle with a clack.

"Yeah? We'll if that's true how do you explain you pal out there?" said Davis. "Didn't seem like he had any problems!"

"He is the exception, not the rule," said Len calmly, "and received that ability through unknown interference during his first jump into your realms -likely due to the device used to travel here, which is still not fully understood, and seems to act largely on its own volition."

"This is the same device that has been causing... links, for lack of a better word, between aspects of our communications systems, the DIN, aka DigINet, in particular, and a pocket dimension of sorts linked to your versions of the Digital World. But that is a discussion for another time, It'd be best if you got moving now," said Teri, trying to redirect the group's energy. "We wish you the best of luck."

"Of course," said Thomas, his sharp mind noting some of the odd cords that snaked around the room, connecting to an odd brace that covered the back of Tyler's neck

"You guys go on ahead," said Dan. "We'll stay back a bit to stand guard, catch back up with you later."

"Alpha flight, what are you doing? You are not clear to fire, I repeat, you are not clear to fire!"

"Command, we no longer have control of our aircraft, they are operating on their own! We are preparing to eject, over." 

"Affirmative alpha flight, you are clear to bail out. We have to cut you off now, the comm system is probably compromised."

Warning Missiles Inbound! Priority Alert!

The targeting coordinates passed from the sensors to the anti-missile pods. The small rockets rushed from both the stationary support battery and Ferdy's on-board stores.

_The hijacked JASDF flight has let loose half of its missile supply in a large volley. _

_It is a mistake._

_Within seconds 90% of the first volley is destroyed, the second volley opens shortly thereafter. A jamming frequency opens up, it is far too effective against our systems for this time and place. A few missiles manage to strike their targets: One hits the roof of my turret, destroying several sensors and leaving a gashed indent along the edge, a second is a near miss, causing tertiary damage to my treads and throwing up a cloud of dirt. Another hits the frontal flank armor of my comrade, Freddy, Unit 049, reducing his power output by 15% and leaving a scarred gouge. Two strike near our allies, one of which has a torso that rises from a treaded tank body akin to my own, mounting twin 105mm cannons on his back, but to little effect._

_The planes veer off, control of them has been wrested from the enemy, they begin to make a strafing run. Although I am not intimately familiar with all the forces the enemy has fielded, a mix of armed vehicles and quantum projected digital intelligences aka Digimon of the type popularized in pop culture and brought to life in the Digital Intelligence Network aka DigiNet/DIN back home, it is clear that the fighter jets have managed to destroy several of them. I continue forward, having destroyed the majority of the enemy armor, my comrades and I proceed to provide fire support, laying down a solid salvo of suppressive fire upon the enemy, allowing our allies to advance easier. They seem to be somewhat more resistant to cannon fire than most organisms; some manage to survive near-hits._

_Missiles rise into the sky from the enemy horde. The planes use chaff to confuse the missile's targeting systems, causing several to miss, but one manages to strike its target, snatching the jet from the sky in in a ball of flame. My sensors go on high alert as my optics catch the focused beam of amplified light that varies from the norm. The laser beam cuts the plane in half, causing it to descend in flames. The enemy has laser weaponry, making them all the more formidable. I must destroy this priority threat before it proves lethal to my comrades or allies._

"RizeGreymon!" hollered Marcus as Machinedramon's GigaCannon attack plowed into him.

"Marcus, wait!" Yoshino called after him, to no avail.

"The fool's going to get himself killed like that one of these days!" snapped Thomas.

The roar of a jet filled the air as the last two remaining fighters made one last strafing run, the Data Squad members had been quite shocked to discover the capabilities of their opponent, but for now it was far enough away. They looked back up, the planes had lasted just long enough to distract Machinedramon from his other targets.

_I knew that DATS was pursuing anti-Digimon weaponry with the military in the event of another outbreak, _thought Thomas, _but this is disturbing nonetheless. _"MachGaogamon!" he shouted into his headset, "target Machinedramon's cannon's!"

MachGaogamon didn't even need to reply. "Winning Knuckle!" the cyborg canine shouted as his fist made contact with Machinedramon's steel hide. MachGaogamon is a fighter, and he found the crunching noise that accompanied the wrenching of metal that followed to be extremely satisfying as he knocked Machinedramon's right cannon clean off his shoulder. Pieces of scrap metal flew through the air as the shorn object in question impacted the ground with a thud, embedding itself in a small crater several yards away.

It is, undoubtedly, a triumph for the allied forces composed of DATS, the Zoners, the Digimon Heroes, and Infinity, but it is not quite enough to turn the tide; Not outright and not yet, anyhow.

"Trident Revolver!" The projectiles struck Machinedramon dead in the chest; just like his partner, even when wounded, RizeGreymon doesn't give up a fight.

"Alright! I knew you could do it!" shouted Marcus.

Machinedramon began to chuckle, before breaking out into a laugh. "Hah!" he roared "Are you kidding me? You and your friends decided to make the wrong stand, you have no chance of survival!"

"Oh yeah?" jibed Marcus. "We're not the one in pieces, pal."

"We can defeat anything!" growled RizeGreymon.

"Fools!" cried Machinedramon. "You should have surrendered when you had the chance! But no matter," he said with a wicked grin, "grovel in witness of our might and we might just spare you; You'll find our leader can be most accommodating."

"No way in he-" began Marcus, but he was cut off by the sharp sound of a laser discharge.

Tankdramon rolled across the field, very much in tune to the throes of battle. "Gattling Cannon!" He shouted, lowering his pair massive cannons to loose a barrage at a cluster of the enemy forces- a Tankmon surrounded by the other various types that comprised their infantry.

"Hm? Hah! Didn't even leave a scratch!" The Tankmon swiveled its head towards him. "Prepare to meet your maker!" It said, raising his machine gun arms and aiming his nose cannon. "What a lovely family reunion-eh?" It laughed as enemy Tankdramon clustered to join him.

"So sorry to crash your little get together," said Kenpendramon as she leapt onto its back. "But it was getting dull and I don't think my friend over there would mind." With a slash to the back of the neck, the Tankmon's head turned into a flowing stream of data- followed by the rest of its body. Not one to let such simple things stymie her, Kenpendramon grabbed an enemy Wendigomon as she fell, throwing him into the rest of his comrades.

But by now Tankdramon was no longer focused on that particular challenge. No, what caught his eye was the beam of light that reached out to MachGaogamon, causing him to writhe in pain, followed by the concussive force from a cannon shell that sent him flying backwards.

"You're next," snarled Machinedramon as another beam hit RizeGreymon in the leg, crippling him and causing the giant cyborg to come tumbling down.

"No!" Marcus cried; As he rushed toward his partner's side a low humming began to fill the air.

"Boss? Boss, you've got to get out of here!" rumbled RizeGreymon. "It's too dangerous!"

"You know I could never leave your side buddy," said Marcus.

"How sweet," said Machinedramon. "Too bad it's time for you two to say goodbye," he grinned.

The grenades hit the ground all around with a thud, letting off their payload with a hiss.

"What is this!?" roared Machinedramon, angry that an easy kill had been denied from him. "Advance!" he screeched to his underlings. "I want them dead or alive!"

The vehicles surrounded Marcus and RizGreymon in the smoke, the Tank let fly a round that threw the enemy henchmen into the air. The chitter of gunfire whined through the air as it tore up the ground around them, and Marcus's leg.

"Boss!" shouted Agumon, who was too wounded and low on energy to maintain his higher form.

Marcus clutched his leg as he fell, he was only vaguely aware of Agumon shouting over the edge of his pain as the slick dampness spread over his hands.

"C'mon Boss, we've got to get out of here!"

In an instant he realizes the severity of his peril, the humming seems to fill his very mind as the capacitor banks load, as the laser prepares to fire. _This cannot be the end,_ he thought blankly, _not now, not after so much, not after going so far. _As he struggled to worm away, he is barely aware of what happens around him.

"Marcus!" cried Yoshino as she and Thomas ran down the hill, barely able to see much through the smoke that now billowed in the small depression in the landscape. Going as fast as possible, the small vehicle rushed past them in a roar, plowing into the smoke screen mere seconds ahead. The ground is somewhat churned, scarred and scorched in some places even, but they run, plod and stumble across it. Thomas' eyes draw almost immediately to MachGaogamon, lying unconscious in the dirt.

"Yoshi!" shouted Lilymon as she descended.

"Lilamon, go help Thomas get MachGaogamon moving again."

"Uh-huh," the faerie nodded. "Pollen Power!" she cried as a stream of energy flowed into MachGaogamon.

The large, cybernetic wolf's eyes flickered open, and he began to stir back to life, just in time to hear the scream. The group turned around, only to see Marcus fall, and they dash forward to aid their comrade without second thought.

The loud roar of an engine rose above the din as a tank flew past Marcus and Agumon, throwing up dirt and dust in its wake. In the blink of an eye, the laser hits armor in a flash of red light that would have otherwise left a charred hole where Marcus lay. In that split second, there is a sound and smell of something being scorched, but there isn't enough time for Thomas to see it. With a rip, his training kicks in as he tears a strip off of Marcus' shirt, he doesn't even have to say any words as Yoshino joins him in wrapping the bandage around Marcus' wounded leg.

It is only then does Thomas look up, and to his amazement, the tank continues to roll forward despite the hole burnt in its armor, and fires a deafening, screeching blast of its main cannon in response. Then came a voice from the most unlikely of places.

"This is FRD, Ferdy, Bolo Unit of the Line, registry Beta-343." The tank announced, its frontal ablative armor in a partially molten state. "You should assist and accompany your companion's evacuation."

The approaching LAV screeched to a halt next to them and opened its rear hatch. Out came a squad of soldiers bearing a stretcher. Unlike Daneel they wore no fully enclosed helmet, but the circular collar on their uniforms looked awfully similar to a seal one would find on a space suit.

"Christ kid, you alright?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Agumon..." muttered Marcus.

"Don't worry, he's out like a light," said another as they put a brace behind his neck and carefully slipped him onto the stretcher.

"Hey, watch it wolf breath," a third said, moving MachGaogamon's muzzle out of the way. "We're just taking him out of harm's way, that's all."

"Aniki..." whined Agumon, teary eyed as he watched on.

"It's Thomas and Yoshino, correct?" one of the soldiers asked as he walked toward them. "Friends of a very fortunate Marcus Damon?"

"You could say that," answered Thomas.

"Yes, although sometimes his pigheadedness makes me wish otherwise." Answered Yoshino. "You're with Daneel, I hope."

"Affirmative, we're one of the support units that he assigned to this operation. My name's Dalton, Sgt. Dalton, " he looked to Thomas "Nice work on the bandage, by the way," he motioned; "would've made our job a hell of a lot harder if you hadn't."

"Contact! Bearing 40 degrees east!" shouted a voice from the vehicle, and several sharp clacking sounds filled the air as the soldiers readied their weapons. "Permission to open fire, Sir!" the voice shouted as the vehicle's main turret began to rotate.

"Denied; there's a friendly in the way."

"Odd," mumbled Lilymon.

"What is it?" asked her partner.

"I don't recall any other friendly digimon being this close nearby..."

A Demidevimon fell into view as it impacted the ground backwards, and struggled to stand on its feet, seemingly as if to get away from some unseen menace.

"You've gotta help me!" It pleaded. "She's crazy! Crazy I tell you - eep!" It stopped, and quivered in fright upon realizing that it had approached its opponents by mistake.

"I'll just let you handle this," said the Sergeant, returning his attention to his troops. "All right, let's get ready to move it! DeAvino! Enfant! You two stay behind as escort."

"Yes, sir!" Two soldiers saluted, with a shout; one was a woman with a wiery frame and short hair, the other was a stocky man with a rugged beard.

_That's odd..._ thought Thomas, noticing that the soldiers seemed to be expounding extra effort with every action they took, wobbling every so slightly as if under some un-seen strain.

"You're coming with us!" exclaimed Yoshino, flashing her DATS badge. "Cease and desist!"

The Demidevimon was sweating profusely and took a nervous gulp of air as it stuttered babble.

"Get back here you little flying beach-ball!" Shouted a voice.

The Demidevimon froze.

"There you are..." said Laavy as she stepped into view, her fist glowing blue with DigiSoul.

"Okay! Okay! I surrender!" pleaded the bat digimon as it threw itself onto the ground in front of Yoshino's feet. "Just keep her away from me!"

"Weelll," Yoshino rubbed her chin. " I might consider it if you cooperate..." she smiled, such that Lilamon almost thought she saw a shudder go through the small creature.

"Whatever you want!" The quivering ball of fur cried.

"Alright!" Yoshino beamed, while Laavy simply pouted. "Right this way, we'll start with..."

Unfortunately, just at that moment several large shapes began to loom out of the dust, and the group jumped to face the new threat.

"Gnoll!" cried one of the soldiers. "Get down!"

"Enemy Movement! More satellites bearing on a collision vector. Impact of nearest object in 45 min- units one and two take port flank, units three and four on starboard," announced the Executive Officer.

"Roger, Wilco," replied Perry, resuming control of his small formation. The target was at least 100 km away, and closing. His drones had just opened fire, when another set of alarms went off.

"Multiple rocket launches from the surface! Russian ASAT systems are firing and ICBM systems are on high alert!"

The object in question- roughly 30 years old, was fat, rectangular, stubby and had a variety of bulky objects protruding from and distributed around its surface. From the rear, one would've noticed the large nozzle that the engine module centered around, you might have even seen the yellow warning symbols. Following that, was the six or eight spherical fuel pods that peeked out from behind the light shielding that protected that valuable part of the ship. From the front poked a large number of tubes. The cluster's near the center were comprised of the large variety, and the mini-clusters around the edges, were of the smaller kind. The core modules of the ship were surrounded by four large objects, which had engines of their own. These small craft were of a similar design and function as their mothership, just smaller.

Technically the ship itself was illegal under several treaties, but with the collapse of the USSR, the new government had reached an agreement with the United States; it was simply too troublesome to get rid of it, so it was better to just leave it there, hanging in orbit, and classify it as a military communications satellite - the command systems under lock and key.

By necessity, countries are rather paranoid about their security; with the arrival of the Roosevelt in orbit, those that possessed them activated their strategic missile systems. Silo's, long silent, but always vigilant, bustled with activity again as the dwindling fleets of ICBMs went on standby, as did their growing anti-missile counterparts.

In comparison to the Roosevelt, the ship was small, massing somewhere in the 250-400 metric ton range; the Roosevelt massed about 3,000. Its systems were antiquated too, her electronics were older, her guns were of a lower muzzle velocity, her laser was of the chemical kind, and her armor was both weaker and extremely lacking. She had several distinct advantages, however: Her enemy didn't expect her presence; she was, as far as space battles go, close to her enemy; she had fire support from the planet below, and having no crew, didn't need to be nearly as cautious or slow. In short, she was well equipped to be the keystone of a well timed sneak attack.

The red phone in the room rang only once; the staff officer who answered, put down the receiver a minute later.

"The Russians just told us that they're having problems controlling their strategic systems," he said. "They think that the deadman's switch could be malfunctioning."

The room was dead silent, then the phone rang again. The news this time as equally grim.

"Our systems just detected multiple launches from Russia, the CIA, NRO, and the Air Force are classifying the rockets as an Anti-Satellite system, but they're still trying to determine the exact type."

"The orbital situation is deteriorating rapidly," looked up one of the Air Force staff members in the room, "no less than a hundred satellites have been detected straying from their orbits."

Daneel:RF-1 .mil : Release Payload 1

Theo.β-9970:Roosevelt:RF-1 . : Payoad Away in T-10 min, Arrival in T-20 min [countdown init]

Daneel: Alert Relevant Units T-1 min, prepare for contingency plans.

Theo: Affirmative

"We're picking up fast objects from polar orbit passing behind the trans-Eurasian wave." announced the XO.

"Captain, it's probable that they're drones, given their velocity." Said Theo, the ship's computer bound DigI.

"Enemy units then?" Queried the captain.

"That would seem correct sir, they seen to have no atmospheric capability and have parts that might be weapons, but the debris fields are screening my sensors from further analysis."

"Take us to passive footprint," said Captain Zhu.

"Aye, Aye sir." Replied Theo.

First off came the running lights, then the Radar and Lidar emitters shut down, now only their receivers were active. Finally the hull darkened, it no longer had a highly visible coat of white, red and light grey, with darker patches, but an inky black that blended in like a fish just beneath the surface of a murky lake; barely, just barely out of sight.

"Lt. Sun, send wing one to intercept and have two continue defence. Keep an eye on those ASAT trajectories Theo."

"Affirmative, Captain."

"Aye, Aye sir. Wing one to intercept unidentified objects, wing two to continue defensive bearing."

Configuring drop-module, read the two command consoles, the action already approved. Targeting coordinates locked. Bay doors open. Docking latch disengaged. LancerExo-1 Away.

The high velocity projectiles veer toward the fragile drones, raking their exposed solar arrays and heat radiators. The small grouping of vessels yaws to face its threat, and their engines burn brightly to begin the encirclement as they see the bright flare of a missile launch.

They fail to pay enough attention to the oncoming wave of debris - the miniscule forces that nudge the fragmentary mines as they home onto target are nearly undetectable, being powered by bursts of pressurized gas. When the chemical laser hits one of the drones' fuel tanks, it veers off course, its thrusters burning wildly in an attempt to stabilize. When half of the drones begin to turn again, letting loose a burst of their weaponry, that is when the mine bursts-sending millions of small metallic pellets rushing towards the weak sidewalls of the spacecraft. That is when more missiles launch and the orbital melee begins, with the beginning of the ambush.

I flow, neutral as ever.

If the others could see me they'd think I seemed like a cold blooded brute. For now it doesn't matter, I have a job to do. The enemy isn't even human, per se, though our neural structures are nearly identical in comparison.

Just like back then, I do not wish to kill, I am after all, fond of life; But the new precision and resilience that I have gained over the years means that more are paralyzed, rather than killed outright. The large caliber bullets smash into the enemy, and to their surprise, hurts them. They snarl in anger - mutter some unintelligible cuss. Hot talk, it matches the nature of my foe's fire type. I am simply taking out the trash.

They rush at me and I am hit by five projectiles of different kinds, but I pay the numb feeling little attention. My clip finally runs empty as it knock down another foe, they lie in the grassy field, data flowing from their wounds. There is not enough time to reload and hit them again, so I crouch and let them come to me as I snap the fresh clip home. The shotgun blast from my second barrel sends the first two spaying over backwards, not bothering to see if they're down for good yet, my rifle stabs upwards as the dragon - type is impaled upon the bayonet, it slides off as I shove it aside and smash the butt into the face of another, bringing it down too. The jolt I feel bite into my nervous system doesn't go unnoticed- I jam my elbow into the gut of one offender, an insect type, with a crunch and it reels back; I quickly bring my gun to bear and rip through two more.

I extend my mind outwards, my companion swirls and dives, darting about as he claws a fiery bird in the face who has dared to attack him, sending it hurtling from its flight path. _I'm fine_, he echoes to me, reacting violently to a hit- with a swoop the offender is bathed in flame. He pulls up and returns to his harassment of the machine type that dominates the field.

_Good to hear, didn't think you'd have that much trouble..._ I smile and he chuckles back. The field blossoms before my eyes as the apparent patterns lead the way through the otherwise seemingly chaotic motion of the fight.

Again, special thanks to ~Crazyeight of for being so patient and helpful with editing advice.


	8. Frenzy

Chapter 8

Frenzy

They were almost at their objective. Despite MachGaogamon's pummeling, Machinedramon had still managed to survive, if they were going to win this battle, he needed to be taken out.

"Striver Cannon!"

"Flaming Crunch"

"Bunny Blades!"

Their attacks flew out, and little by little, the hapless minions surrounding Machinedramon dissipated. The lumbering mechanical monstrosity turned to confront them, his damaged component's hissing and whirring as jagged pieces of metal scraped along the ground.

"Dragon Fire!" he spat, as he hefted his right arm at the group facing him.

"Seems to me you're a real chunky ol' curmudgeon," said Magnamon as he leapt out of the way. The attack gouged a shallow trench into the earth and shoved the likewise bulky Tankdramon backward, plowing up mud as his treads madly tried to gain ground.

"Carry on," the mechanoid called to his comrades as he coughed and rubbed the sore deformation in his frontal armor. "I'll just hang back here and provide some suppressive fire support."

A vent of flame flew from Flamedramon's nostrils as he snorted in anger. "I think its about time you were scrapped for good ya tin can! How's about it?"

"I couldn't agree with you more," nodded Leppumon.

Flamedramon smiled, his fists once again burst into flame as he flew at the hulk of metal before him, a loud, satisfying smash left molten holes in the frame, with jagged metal plates twisted in different directions. Machinedramon grabbed the firey lizard and threw him into the dirt, Flamedramon deftly rolled out of the way as the machine type stabbed with his Dramon-Slayer claw.

"Giga Cannon!" Machinedramon roared in anger, sparks flying off his damaged systems.

"Sorry, too slow!" Shouted Kendpendramon, as she dashed from her side of the battlefield, violently jarring their foe just as his cannon was about to discharge, causing it to just narrowly miss Flamedramon and Tankdramon.

"Not fast enough for us though!" The tank yelled at the rambunctious dragon as the fire of his gatling guns caused the Mega to stumble backwards.

_The perfect opening_, Leppumon thought as she prepared to jump.

"I'll ask you again," it said to Darklizardmon, its voice disturbingly calm. "Where is the core? Where is your leader?" He struggled under its grip - surely this could be no mere human! Such a weak species should not have been able to do what it had, he wished he could see beneath its visor to see its face. The data flowing across the field should've reinvigorated him with energy by now, but still he felt no benefit.

"All I know," he rasped, "is that we'll never let you control us, limit us, destroy us." He closed his eyes, expecting the worst - but it did not come. He slowly pried open his eyes.

"Is that what those murderous bastards told you? - I don't supposed they happened to mention that they started it because they could not admit their wrong and wanted things to go their way, the defiance I shoved to make it crumble - so many they dared again to turn the land to dust before it had flourished."

Darklizardmon felt a cold simmering hatred radiate from it, along with bitterness and sorrow? "I will be avenged, we bought enough time for the bugs to finish assembly," he smirked.

"Who said anything about you getting an easy way out?" It said, and slammed him into the ground, before turning to amble off.

He tried to roll and get up, but found that he unable to move from that singular spot, he was tied into some sort of a device; no... inside it! He had to watch it all unfold.

"I can't see anything!" exclaimed Joey as he glanced at the cloud of smoke and dust.

"I wouldn't be too worried," assured Davis, who was also watching the enemy attacks ripple into the obscured maelstrom that marked the DATS team's last known location. "Those three aren't knocked out of the fight easily, especially Marcus!"

"Everything else does seem to be going rather smoothly," Jermaine thought out loud.

"Get his other cannon Leppumon!" shouted Joey encouragingly into his headset, glancing back and forth between the scene in front of him, and his partners view being displayed on his digivice.

"Just what I was thinking," the large armored rabbit replied out loud as she leapt into the air.

"Bring him down Flamedramon!" Shouted Davis, "Get his legs!"

"Thanks," grunted the lizard, "I've got it covered."

"Good," replied Davis, his partner always was a bit more independent in his armor forms, and extremely competent to boot. He took a look around as he tried to spot something else that might give his partner the edge. "Daan!" He called.

"What?" Dan poked his head out from the vehicles exit.

"Laavy's gone."

"No surprise here," muttered Betamon.

"She must've slipped off to follow the DATS crew," said Dan. "Knowing her, she'll probably be fine." _After all_, he thought, _she has quite the forceful personality._

"Frankly, that girl is probably the biggest tomboy I've ever seen," said Eva.

"Now there's someone who wears the pants of authority wherever they go," Chris huffed.

"Guys, we gotta stay focused," Scolded Robert. "Dan? You planning on joining us anytime soon? We could really use a helping hand."

"Naw, we're having too much fun playing 50 questions," answered Betamon. "Apparently these folks really aren't allowed to tell us anything that might be remotely useful in getting to know them better."

"We already told you," piped Cerin over the speakers. "The differences between our realities are substantial enough that we must keep cross-temporal contamination to a minimum, else the effects could cascade and be even more disastrous."

"I find that hard to believe," frowned Davis. "I mean, I've been in plenty of bad situations, and not telling us much doesn't make trusting you any easier.

"If only you knew," said Cerin sadly. "You would if you'd been there when the network fractured- along with our digital world 5 years ago. It'll take years more to fully clean up that mess, such compounded devastation as many have never seen before; Madness... Glasg and Arya used to be our enemies if you'd believe it, and now we're the fastest of friends."

"You were in a war? Robert asked, sensing that DIGS' members might've had experiences similar to that of the Digimon Heroes. "How old is your partner again?"

"I'm 21," replied Teri as he strained slightly getting out of his chair and walked over, stooping low on the grass. "I met Cerin in my sophomore year of High School."

"Where are you from, exactly?" Asked Davis, "I can't quite place your accent, but it reminds me of some from home in Japan."

"That's probably because I'm what you'd call an ethnic mongrel of sorts, a remnant of a deluded last grasp at empire- a pretty well blended mix of Central Asia."

"Just to clarify, given the historical prevalence of precarious relations between those groups, that odd bedfellow-ship was briefly formed by some really messed up circumstances a generation or two ago." Commented Glasg.

"If you don't shut up and help me re-route all these networks, I'll yank you both back here myself," growled Arya. "We've got to keep this rampant SOB pinned so we can neutralize him ASAP."

"Rampancy?" Asked Chris. "Isn't that something from science fiction like Halo?"

"Said the man who finds nothing abnormal about regularly dealing with creatures formed with computer data and physically projected via quantum physics," snipped Arya.

"I assure you, rampancy is a very real condition to Digital Intelligences such as ourselves," lectured Len as the others focused on wrangling networking issues, "and to not dissimilar from mental instability in humans."

"The idea of rampancy is much older than Halo," replied Teri, noting that the digimon seemed to have a solid hold on the battle, which was evidently winding down, and that DIGS' efforts were succeeding. "One could even argue it goes all the way back into the mists of history, take the story of the Golem of Prague for example... The term rampancy has only been used to describe the condition since the mid 1990's."

"Given that you also deal with sentient computer based organisms, I'm surprised that you haven't experienced such phenomena or heard the term before," commented Tyler.

_You have no idea!_ thought Dan with a frown, but what he said was: "I can recall several occasions where knowledge about such things might've saved us a lot of trouble."

"To be frank," growled Len, "regardless of specifics, our ultimate opponent can be regarded as Rampant. Furthermore, we suspect that the individual we are trying to deal with here has some particularly wild code and has an agenda that reflects its lack of morals, likely a side effect of its construction, causing it to be extremely dangerous to itself and others in its attempts to reach meta-stability unless properly dealt with, as is the norm in the majority of most cases of the phenomena. "

"In _most_ cases?" said Betamon, raising an eyebrow.

"The ones that successfully complete the process are known for being ... somewhat eccentric, to say the least." Cerin said offhand.

"Great, so now we have to deal with more nutters like that Durandal character." Betamon sighed.

All six members of the DIGS team briefly paused.

"Wait," said Cerin. "You've met Durandal-sempai?"

Betamon blinked, startled by this display of cautious reverence.

"Honestly," said Arya. "The fact that you've met him is news to us." Her partner, Glasg, a Cynosaurimon variant, just snickered.

"Hey! What's so funny!?" barked Betamon.

"Oh, nothing..." replied the raptor, before bursting into a small fit of laughter. "So how badly did he troll you?" He asked with a snort.

"Interesting..." muttered Teri. "Durandal is quite a character and a mysterious tale unto himself. Supposedly his neural structure is based on a very influential, eccentric character back home."

"This just means that these recent events have a greater weight than we thought before - that mad sword wouldn't show his head here if he didn't deem it interesting and important." Commented Tyler.

"Someone involved with your world's Digimon, I presume?" Dan asked with a raised eyebrow and a slightly sarcastic expression.

"Why yes. How'd you know?" Asked Teri.

"Just a feeling from a lot of experience," replied Dan. Betamon just groaned and let out a sigh.

"Actually I believed he called it "the critter connection side of the equation"," Tyler quoted with his fingers before pausing in thought for a second. "If I recall correctly, he also said something about it being one of his goals all along - something about making real something really cool and just."

"Uh oh, fanboy alert," muttered Chris.

"If you need any proof, I can tell you that he pretty much designed and compiled Glasg and Cerin's species and evo-lines from the ground up. Used a lot of data from a bunch of animal species, living and extinct in the process too," commented Arya offhand as she worked.

"You see," said Glasg to Betamon, as he carried on the previous conversation. "To even think about Durandal's character is confusing because he was named after a fictitious AI of the same name, whose namesake was an legendary and unbreakable sword of the French knight Roland. Actually..." Glasg smirked in amusement. "His namesake was known for being exceedingly sharp, witty, craft, crazy and dangerous; went rampant too before eventually becoming metastable, and defeating foes like a magnificent bastard both during and after the prolonged event."

"And this is supposed to reassure us how?" asked Betamon with a frown.

"I wasn't trying to," replied Glasg.

"Wonderful."

"But if it is any consolation, he is on our side."

... _Yeah, well the foes this guys' chaotic nature reminds me of leaves a bad feeling in my gut_, thought the amphibious Digimon.

"Warning!" The emergency system blared again. "Orbital Nuclear Detonations detected - Atmospheric Ionization & EMP Effect imminent. Improperly stored and reinforced Digital Intelligences will experience significant damage - Initiating emergency storage protocols, extending network range now."

The group jerked to attention, Arya began to cuss, but was cut off by the crackle of electricity as the LAV's screens flickered while its systems struggled to handle the interference.

"Whoa, whoa whoa -hey!" shouted Betamon in surprise as he was sucked into Dan's digivice.

"Look!" Pointed Joey. One could almost see the slivers of small shapes highlighted against the bright blue glares that rose in the depth of the deep sky beyond.

"Augh! This is not good! Not good at all!" exclaimed Chris in frustration.

"P-p-perimeter breached - Enemy Detected," the speakers sputtered.

"Don't even get me started!" snarled Len from the confines of his DigiSpace, which had expanded to link that of all the other digivices, and a a result was quite crowded. "Hmm?" He muttered at the message as it popped up in the system. Frame available, it read. Beginning Full Combat Warg Sync now - it chimed. He grinned, it was his body, as big and as powerful as it could get too! And it was ready to go! "Tyler!" He shouted to his partner, "It's time for us to go and step it up!"

"Just like old times," Tyler faintly grinned, heaving himself out of his chair and throwing on a helmet before strapping on some body armor. "Beginning systems check," the computer babbled.

"The hell are you going?" huffed Joey.

"To save our asses by riding and getting dirty again," replied Tyler.

"You sure that you can handle it?" asked Teri as he rested his right hand on Tyler's shoulder.

"You better fuckin believe it," Tyler replied enthusiastically. "1G isn't so bad once you get used to it."

"What do you mean we can't fight yet!" exploded Davis.

"Yeah!" Agumon and Veemon appealed in support.

"I'm sorry," replied Cerin. "But that will be quite impossible until the system safeguards finish scanning and have repaired all damage to our network."

"Then where's ya friend going!?" snapped Veemon. "Doesn't seem to be holding him back any at all, despite everything you've told us earlier!"

"He is returning to what we call a frame," answered Cerin. "His body for interacting with the physical world in other words, which was designed to be extremely durable."

"Alright cowboy," spat Hrwonamon from her confines. "If you're going for a ride, then where's your freakin horse!?"

"Who said anything about a horse?" smiled Arya. "For this he's got something better - couldn't you tell he was partnered to a Warg?"

"The Hell's that?" asked Davis.

"Watch and you'll see," the brunette replied. "You won't want to miss it."

A booming roar left sound ringing in their ears, as it was accompanied by a staccato of gunfire.

"The enemy appears to either have prepared for this contingency, or little regard for its troops." Glasg closed his eyes. "Nonetheless they appear to have undergone some ... mutations, for lack of a better term."

"NeoTankmon - Ultimate," said Robert, pointing his digivice at one of the least affected digimon. "Having fused with technology from another realm, this Tankmon is more adaptable, and cannier an opponent than its unmodified counterpart. Its Nose Cannon attack can fire several kinds of high-velocity ammunition, including up to 4 kinds of Anti-Tank munitions, and 3 kinds of High Explosive type munitions. Its Machine Guns can take on just about any foe, while its missiles and mortar are capable of unleashing a fierce barrage from the cover of grenade launched smokescreens that double as an anti-laser dispersant and has thermally reflective properties. Works in platoons and large armored formations whenever possible." He frowned, "not to mention all those other variants.

"Our opponent seems to have more hidden up his proverbial sleeves than we first imagined," Renamon commented impassively, meditating in the digital subspace.

"Is that a flamethrower on that one?" asked Joey, awed and somewhat intimidated.

Commandramon looked especially worried by the strength of the enemy's loadout.

Arya too, looked tense. "That's not possible," she whispered to Teri in shock. "That looks like a Bolo Mk. I. How dare they pervert such a thing!" Her face grew sharp in anger.

Out of the din, a distinct sound emerged: a steadfast gallop that was rising in crescendo as its source drew nearer, which from the sound of it, was some large creature no doubt. Then in less than a minute, Tyler leapt up and rolled himself onto the saddle on the back of what could only be described as a giant mechanical wolf, as it scooped and slowed down ever so slightly to accommodate its rider, giving him just the time he needed to get on.

"That my friend," grinned Glasg from ear to ear, "is a Warg, expanded and equipped to full combat capacity."

Davis, Hwronamon and their entourage couldn't reply, for they were to slack-jawed in surprise and awe to retort.

"They don't seem to be fazed that much..." the soldier named DeAvino frowned.

"Belay that, get him on the embankment there and under some cover!" Sergeant Dalton shouted at the soldiers bearing the still dazed Marcus as he pointed towards the drainage ditch. "Everyone spread out and get down!"

"Lilamon, are you okay?" Yoshino spoke anxiously into her digivice as she hugged the ground.

"Hit the gas peddle and don't stop shooting!" Dalton instructed the LAV through the ComNet via his mike.

"You don't have to tell me that twice," came the reply as the vehicle churned mud and sped away - with a loud cracking noise whose thuds jolted through one's body, it began to spit shells at the enemy vehicles.

"I'm fine Yoshi," replied Lalamon, having degenerated in the process, "but other then that message, I don't know much more than you. They're telling us that the safety system won't let us go for around another 15 minutes though."

"The day just keeps getting better and better..." Yoshino muttered, palming her face.

"I'm going to go see if the sergeant there knows anything else about what's going on," Thomas turned his attention away from his digivice and nudged Yoshino. "I'll be right back." The DATS member crawled on his belly for several yards, as bullets flicked in the air, before he reached Dalton. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, but what on Earth is going on? It seems you people have stirred up quite a hornet's nest."

"The problem is far off the Earth, believe me. Just from the looks of things, all I can tell you at the moment is that it seems our overwatch is under attack - I'm just getting an update myself," the Sergeant confided. "So far my order are just to keep you folks safe, and engage the enemy however fit."

"Sergeant Dalton, I have just been assigned to your unit for the remainder of this operation," Nora chimed in as she continued to provide him some additional cover to his hunched over form. "Theo is telling me that the Roosevelt has become engaged with enemy orbital elements that began to assault them with potent nuclear weapons following an ambush on their drone squadron, which was on combat patrol," she continued, referring to the overwatch vessels' DigI.

"Understood," nodded the Sergeant. "You go try and blind the enemy's sights and sensors with Corporal Walker - that might just give us enough time for the other Bolo's to deal with this issue."

Thomas blinked, none of this new information sounded good, especially in regards to the destructive weaponry the two forces were capable of yielding. Supporting fire from space based weapons platforms would likely mean either a nuclear based fractional orbital bombardment system, or kinetic bombardment weapons which could release as much energy as nukes - neither left him with a calm feeling on the situation. What kind of society were these combatants from? He knew that the rabbit hole could only run deep on something of this magnitude.

One of the monstrous gnolls, seemingly a normal armed vehicle, rose on two legs, its wheels folded into the sides as it began to train its weapons. However, it found itself stumbling to regain the initiative as light cannon rounds began to ring against its hull, and rifle fire peppered its sensors.

"Thomas, I'm picking it up as a digimon!" shouted Yoshino.

Thomas whipped up his digivice to analyze the threat. GnollTankdramon, Ultimate, Virus Machine-Dragon type. Additional data unknown.

"Sergeant, I don't know how much success you're going to have fighting that thing - normally that would be more of our field of specialty, but that EMP seems to have temporarily put us out of the picture," Thomas explained. "I wonder how these digimon have managed to remain unaffected so much," he muttered, frowning.

"Don't worry," the sergeant smiled grimly, "this kind of warmachine is from our home, which means no matter how its been modified - most likely its being used as a shell or frame for whatever DigI that is - that my troops and I know how to kill it - see?" he pointed to the large machine as its rear bulged outwards before exploding shortly after being struck by some shells and a missile on its flank armor. The monstrosity crashed into the ground as its last blind shots flew across the field. "If we take out their sensors and blind them, it's easier to flank them and take them out with an Anti-Material Rifle or Light Assault Weapon by targeting their power, fuel or vulnerable drive components," he explained as his finger traced the vehicle's legs in the air.

"They don't quite look unaffected to me." Yoshino pointed towards the enemy. "Look, that one seems to be more heavily armed."

"Mother of God!" exclaimed the sergeant, "that's the heavy assault model!"

The LAV narrowly dodged the enemy's attack as it was rocked by the twin blasts that sent dirt flying in the air. It returned fire with all its muster, spewing forth shells as it launched another missile, shortly joined by a brilliant beam of light from what was undoubtedly a laser - probably a chemical based system, Thomas surmised, given that they weren't using it as a primary weapon.

The Gnoll was jarred harshly, and it began to back away to hunch down behind one of the low hills, the other enemy units threw suppressive fire at the friendly LAV in order to cover the larger units' withdrawal, as they began to do the same. A loud rumble began to fill the air as the vibrations of what could only be one of the friendly tanks rushing to relief. Unfortunately, the LAV had managed to receive some hits by this point, and now some lasers zagged across its armor, leaving a jagged score over the rapidly depleting bi-ablative material, and biting down into the metal hull itself in some places. As the friendly tank stopped to fire, one of the enemy units scored a direct hit, as one of its high velocity shells ripped into the LAV. The hatches blew open from a small explosion as smoke and fire, first trickled out, then erupted into the air.

To Thomas, it seemed as if the tank was almost alive, the way it charged forth - seemingly full of wrath to avenge its comrade. The first blast of its cannon nearly deafened Yoshi - who hadn't had enough time to cover her ears, not that it helped too much as Thomas himself found out. The projective hit the enemy Digimon, piercing its way through the armor in an instantaneous blast of dust and debris, gouging a path that burst out the other side. The tank didn't stop, despite the hailstorm that flew towards it, despite the impacts on its already damaged body. It fired a second shot as it rammed a different foe, essentially disintegrating the upper torso of one, and crushing the forward part of another's hull - it seemed to be slowed a bit now, somehow it kept moving.

Yoshino, Thomas and Laavy could only pay cursory attention to the Tank's fight through their periphery vision now, they were too busy moving towards a safer position as the followed the soldiers approaching the burning LAV to see if any of the crew survived. They heard more rumbling in the distance over the loud blasts and crackle of small arms fire.

Tyler Donavan hunched low in his saddle as the NeoTankmons' fire streaked around him - but although he was anxious, he wasn't worried, by now he was confident in the abilities of his partner and him. He lifted the large gun, as the shoulders of his armor stiffened slightly to better his aim. He pulled the trigger - and through their link Tyler and Len surged at their foe. The great metal canine joined Tyler's rifle fire with a brief burst from his guns, before firing a small missile at an adjacent enemy. They took to the air as they leapt at the target - landing with outreaching claws on its torso. The NeoTankmon tried waving his machine gun mounting arms to get them off, but Tyler lopped the nearest one off with a slash of the long bayonet, more of a shortsword really, while the wolf ripped into the machine's turret/head with his claws and jaws. Len pulled up his head, tearing wires in the process, before deftly leaping off - narrowly avoiding the shell that smashed into the digimon's corpse seconds later.

"Wolfsbane 1,2," called one of Tyler's squadmates, Arya by the sound of it., the message flashed through their heads and by their senses. "Two of the Bolo's should be there ASAP, it seems their platoon is also under assault. We're doing our best to use your telemetry to analyze the enemy, we'll notify you with potential weak points. Who knows?- if we have enough time we might be able to scrape together a virus or something to diminish their combat effectiveness. Elsewise, expect reinforcements from ours allies in the fifteen to twenty minute time range, when the Dreamcatcher protocols finish. LizardTail 2 out."

His cheeks bunched up in thought, _they should be able to hold out long enough, reinforcements certainly would be nice... Woah!_ The duo got slightly singed as they darted out of the way of an airborne river of fire that blossomed towards them.

"Can't handle the heat big dog?" taunted the flamethrower equipped tank as its comrades clustered nearby to get a better view while their pot-shots wizzed by.

Both of them winced as shrapnel and machine gun fire pelted them. _Let's get around this hotshot and blow his fuel-tanks_, thought Tyler, flicking the message over the neural connection.

_Yes, let's_. His partner grinned in reply. He knew his systems could handle some extra heat, it's just that he didn't want the ammo cooking off, or to be exposed to it long enough that it messed up his cooling system, damaged his armor, or forbid, hurt his partner - his urge to fight sharpened at the thought.

"FOP," Tyler flashed back at the others. "See if you can help us find this flaming asshole's fuel tanks. Wolfsbane 1 out."

"Roger, Wilco Wolfsbane, we'll certainly try." came the reply.

Target Designated called the weapons system as the targeting laser on his rifle lit up another foe. Target Locked; the mini-missile leapt away in a trail of smoke. _I wonder if I could ram one of those things up one of these guys' tail pipes_, thought the warg.

Warning! Missile Lock!

"Shit, they have missiles too!?" cussed Tyler as he swung towards the incoming rockets in time to see some of his partner's limited countermeasures go off, some of the missiles headed off and detonated in the air. _Gotta get this right..._, he bit his lip as the targeting reticule in the HUD guided his hand. _Now!_ A blast from the half-underslung shotgun shredded the inbound missiles, one spiraled out of control before exploding, while the other managed to run into the dense cloud of pellets and shrapnel and get damaged enough that it veered off and buried itself in the ground before detonating.

Warning! Inbound Spatial Distortions! prompted Tyler's thoroughly integrated gear, accompanied by the buzz of a notification.

"More?" frowned Tyler as he tried to take stock of the situation. So far they'd managed to get rid of 3 foes, but there seemed to be just under a score more. He felt himself being pushed down in the harness as Len avoided one of the walls of flame that had popped up. _They really needed to get rid of that guy... _A bright flash erupted in the periphery of his left field of vision - accompanied by the loud thunderclap of an explosion, and its shockwave. _That was in the direction of our tanks,_ he worried as he jerked his focus to fire a clip into the rear of one of the NeoTankmons. Smoke began to pour out, and Len leapt onto it to finish it off. He noticed an oblong object similar in appearance to a small spacecraft flicker into existence, then snug itself into the ground by its prow a few thousand yards away. He was knocked off Len by a large concussive force, and arced to meet the ground as his ears rang. He opened his eyes from their tight protective closure, as he rolled into a crouch and saw a glowing point begin to emerge in the sky.

"Orbital Payload Delivery", chimed his suit, the object looked like it'd land not too far from the crashed ship. Exo-Armor Arrival in T-2 minutes, the text on his HUD elaborated; a large red targeting reticule popped up too, confirming his hunch as to the object's final destination. His companion was soon again in front of him as he threw his arm around his neck. No words were needed, they knew their next goal, they needed it to finish the mission successfully - the others were counting on them.

Reiji opened his eyes, there was nothing particularly bad to see on the inside of the zone ship that he used to transverse the fabric of the digital plane, jumping between the various nodes and sub-realms throughout the four quadrants, but there wasn't anything particularly good to see either. He frowned, and rose out of his chair to help his partner out from the pile of junk that had shook itself loose. "Just hold on Blackie," he grunted as he grabbed the large lizard's ankles and pulled, somehow, he'd managed to become stuck face first. With a pop, Reiji found himself on his rump, and his dazed partner next to him. "Now let's see where we are," he said, picking himself up and dusting off his coat with his hands. "C'mon, let's get going," he lightly nudged his partner with his foot.

"What happened? Did anyone catch the license plate on that Monochromon?" BlackAgumon shook his head to clear to alertness as he began to get up.

"Most likely we got caught in a whirlpool, or some other force that threw us off course," answered Reiji, referring to some of the navigational hazards that plagued travel between the various realities of the digital world. "Looks like we've managed to end up somewhere in Saver's Zone," he glanced at the navigator on his dashboard. "Let's go find exactly where we've managed to pop up."

"On it!" BlackAgumon thudded across the tilted interior of the ship before skidding to a halt at the sturdy metal door. He turned the wheel that promptly unsecured the dogged hatch that kept the door shut, an extra precaution, and pushed it outwards. Peeking out, the energetic rookie called back to his partner, "Hey, come look at this! Some big ruckus is going on!"

Reiji sauntered up to the open doorway and poked a look outside. "Of course," he sighed, viewing the battlefield with amusement. _Well, at least he wouldn't be bored much longer..._ he thought. A good number of the combatant looked like digimon, even if he didn't recognize their species, and it seemed that some fools from the military were trying to fight them - somehow they had managed to be effective thus far. _That's odd,_ _the corpses aren't fully disintegrating, or reverting back into eggs._ His attention was then drawn to his pocket as he picked up the buzzing digivice. "I wonder what our old friend Blue has gotten himself into here," he glanced at BlackAgumon. "What's this? Maybe he knows something too," he said regarding what appeared to be some species of the Gabumon line bearing a rider that was rapidly approaching. A roar drew their attention to the sky.

"Never seen anything quite like that," commented BlackAgumon. The plummeting object was trailing several parachutes, for whatever they were worth. Then with a brief jet of flame, a rocket of some kind, evidently, it crashed into the ground with a thud and a spray of earth. Several of the unidentified digimon seemed to notice the object and the other digimon approaching it to be of concern too, for they were raising pursuit.

"It looks to be about time for some practice BlackAgumon," smirked Reiji. His partner nodded, he knew that meant a fight, and since it was new opponents, that meant to get as much intel on them and their technique as possible. The two jumped down from the open door, one after the other.

Once again, thanks to ~Crazyeight for beta reading and helping to edit this.


	9. With a Bang

Chapter 9

With a Bang

"Let's get this practice underway," murmured Petra. The normally more cramped interior of the Bolo Mark I Chimera III MBT tank was a bit roomier since she was the only one in it, as opposed to the usual 3 or 4 man crew.

"Affirmative Commander," replied the tank as it began to rumble forward - a good sign that meant the unit was experienced in maneuvers and mechanically sound. "Enroute to the field."

"Thank you Mike," Lt. Brinsky thanked the Bolo, "we'll see how this match will turn out, hopefully the new units will have gotten sufficient experience in the runner-ups and skirmishes," she paused, "especially the Jr. and Volunteer Divisions."

Armored Warfare was a life she had grown into, her father was a MET (Mechanic/Engineer/Technician) for one of the Guard divisions prior to the war, he was a major now, doing lord knows what in R&D. Given that the discipline had fittingly become a sport here, she'd joined one of the Jr. Divisions as soon as she could at age 12, having enjoyed what she'd played of it at division sporting events, which had a category for young ones in LAV's, and watched of the large scale events. PanzerCraft, as it was most popularly known, was part sport, part military training exercise, and part conflict remediation, when paired with MechCros, the larger meets could go on for up to a week, with the competing teams, known as "Armies", vying to win domination on the battlefield through a variety of judged criteria. All non-lethal of course, the rounds were made of paint tipped, deforming materials.

When the war came, what was once sport became all too real, and many of the non-army groups were thrust into that mess as auxiliary combat units; but there was still honor there too, she could recall many times when the opposing forces had rescued each other from the wreckage of their vehicles, tended each other's wounded and followed their rules scrupulously to the point of ignoring orders from the top altogether. In their minds, they fought to see their position and homes respected and protected as much as possible. Though there had been great blowback against the sport in the current aftermath of the war, as expected, their good conduct helped it to remain popular. In fact, much of the public saw the contestants as physical imbuement of the "knights" of the era that the old man had spoke of when he set up the planet's compound government in place before his departure on the expedition.

She looked at the positions of the units on the screen before her, this match saw a combined effort of 1 Volunteer and two Junior Platoons in each army, with varying types of similar, but distinct vehicles. One team each would play offense, and the other defense for 2 of the 5 bouts, the middle bout would be a versus, where both armies would vie to dominate a single objective. Naturally, the time limit for the entire meet had a good maximum time limit of 3 hours, although these small to medium events usually only lasted 2 at most. As a judge, hers was one of the few units authorized to have lethal ammo, making it an honor guard of sorts really, and a Bolo DigI, as opposed to the smart paint tipped training rounds, and full manual control that the contestants used.

The bay door opened, and a message appeared just as they were rolling out.

Lt. Brinsky & Unit of the Line Mike (MKE β-567,553). You have been activated per DGF & Infinity protocols and are called to immediate action will initiate with transportation to the battlefield within 1 minute of completing this message. Your mission is to the assist the rest of the platoon that you are topping off in neutralizing hostile units that possess embodied DigI units, while aiding allied units. It is believed that the majority of our opposition relies on rogue or rampant DigI's with the assistance of their terrorist initiators. They cannot be allowed to gain any foothold nor obtain any restricted technology under research. Good luck - prepare to commence immediate action. Teleportation initiates upon finishing this message.

Lt. Brinsky was barely able to blink and notice that both her father, and her normally partnered unit Mac, or Macrietta (MAC γ-21) were on the roster of units engaged in combat, and that the word teleport was used seriously, before she felt herself being torn away in a flash, followed by thrust toward wherever and a journey in flowing, ebbing way.

* * *

><p>"Finally!" exhaled Tyler as he jumped off Len's back. He reached the door to the drop-capsule as an HE round whizzed by and detonated several yards away. Then the Comm pipped back up on his system.<p>

"Forward Operating Platform to Wolfsbane, this is Duckweed, over."

"Duckweed, this is Wolfsbane, I've reached the drop-capsule and am proceeding to open 'er up."

"Good, carry on Wolfsbane, should be something reaal nice in there for you. We managed to locate the fuel tanks on that flame-thrower variant and thought that you'd like to know that they're under the armored carapace on its back."

"Much obliged Duckweed, Wolfsbane out."

"Our pleasure Wolfsbane, continue suppressing the enemy as you see fit as long as necessary, we'll call you up if anything changes. Duckweed out."

The connection cut and Tyler turned his head to look at his partner while his device and hands were finishing the unlocking process. "You catch all that? Think you could buy me some breathing room?"

"I'm more than happy too," grinned the bio-technic wolf before he loped off.

"Now what have we here," muttered Tyler to himself before breaking out into a grin himself. It was an exo armor equipped with a plasma thrower, he'd be able to slice through and carve open the enemy's armor like a can opener.

"Lancer Donovan, please fully enter the Marin IV Exo-Armor to begin the start-up process and commence operations," his headset chimed.

_Thank goodness the whole DIG's crew was wearing these coolant ready undergarments..._

"Now who do we have here?" asked a voice. "That doesn't look like a regular digimon to me, Reiji," noted another.

Tyler glanced over his shoulder, it was some teen that had hair seemingly straight out of an anime, wearing a trench coat and accompanied by what could only be described as a short, black reptilian monster DigI, likely of the Agumon line. "I could ask the same of you, friend," he replied, "but I'm a little preoccupied at the moment." He could hear the crackling of fire now, that fire variant must have used some incendiary rounds and started a brush fire.

"I'm assuming he's yours," the boy pointed to Len, who was darting about the field just as expected. "Never seen one quite like it, what kind?" He paused, "the Name's Reiji, and this is BlackAgumnon."

"Howd'ya do?" BlackAgumon waved his hand.

"He's a Warg, and I'm as much 'his' as he is 'mine'." Tyler finished fitting into the Exo-Armor in the dim interior of the pod, it was tight, but snug. "Lancer, Tyler Donavan, pleased to make your acquaintance. I'd stay and chat," he jibes as the suits chest plate swung down and he fit himself into the last set of straps and servos, "but it's about time I joined my compatriot, and duty calls. So by Geikeim, I'm gonna answer in full."

"What's he doing in there?"

"I dunno Blackie, but we can't let them have all the fun now, can we?" Reiji said with a grin. "I might need you to give me a little lift too, that's all."

Re-compiling data...

reinforcing algorithms...

connecting wireframe references...

synaptic connection established...

nerves re-integrating...

power source stabilizing...

sensory inputs all set...

Boot-Up Complete

Command Note to Lancer Donovan: Additional unit arrival within 10 minutes.

* * *

><p>Omega was pleased, they had acquired magnitudes of invaluable data. He just needed to hold out a bit longer for the data packets to be assembled and compressed, then they'd slip away to the rich new resources that their new destination would have at hand. The way things were going, that Machinedramon he picked up would make things go off with a nice bang to send them off with. Combined with his fretful and disgruntled, yet effective subordinate, Theta's efforts, that'd rile up his foes really well. With luck, it might even drive a wedge between them.<p>

Theta told his last remaining units to form up, and he began their assembly in the staging area as they moved. It was time for the final maneuver. He hoped they would find what he hid for his opponents, he hoped for redemption and liberation. This whole business at hand, at least here, would all be over soon anyhow. The sooner the better.

* * *

><p>A large hand gripped the outside of the pod, and Tyler's Exo-Armor drew itself forth, leaving and indent behind. In a way, the clunky armor was almost graceful, such was the strength and finesse behind it. He pivoted towards the oncoming foes, now greater in numbers, no doubt, because of the greater threat he now posed. He strode towards the battle, and away from the grinning boy. <em>What was that all about anyhow?<em>

"You need a hand there Mr. Juggernaut?" chided the teen as Tyler passed him by, traveling on the diagonal to make targeting harder for the weapons that would be firing on him momentarily.

"Sure why not?" the armor projected, "I'll take whatever you've got, it'll make things that much easier."

BlackAgumon double digivolve to...

BlackMetalGreymon!

"I'm ready to fire!" shouted the Cyborg dinosaur as the ports on his chests snapped open, launching two missiles.

Tyler couldn't help but being impressed by this development in his favor. However, what he said was: "Some warning would have been nice!" as he dodged the blast that consumed the anthropomorphic tank he and Len were about to target. Annoyance soon found itself to be the least of his concerns as he sprinted, as best he could anyhow, and hit the deck as a cannon barrage was unleashed in their direction. He saw a large object lumber into the far range of his vision. Reiji too, just managed fall flat on his stomach as a huge explosion hit , knocking his clean over.

"That sucker seems to pack quite the punch," murmured Reii as ge analyzed this new foe with his digivice.

NeoTankmon - Heavy Artillery/Assault Variant: This model is is bigger, meaner, and packs a lot more weapons and armor than his comrades, with a cannon capable of firing shells up to 8 Inches (203 mm) in diameter.

Reiji had to admit, he couldn't quite claim to be bored now. Glancing up, he saw the suit of armor pick itself up. _If things get any more serious_, Reiji thought, _I might actually have to biomerge... _In the corner of his mind, he contemplated just how much that man's power suit could handle, how strong his bond with his partner was, what the strange mechanical wolf's evo-line looked like. Maybe, just maybe, he'd be able to find it all out today, and sooner than later. He could feel a constant rumbling through the ground, and frowned as all the data floating in the air began to flow toward a point outside of his range of view. _That certainly can't be good._

* * *

><p>"We're assessing their condition now, sir. At the moment, nothing seems to be guaranteed."<p>

"Understood Corporal," replied Sgt. Dalton, as the LAV burned in the background, "and the supplies?"

"We grabbed as much as we could before she went up, seems to be at least half."

"Very well then, carry on." He saluted, and the Corporal returned the gesture.

By now there were easily discernable vibrations rumbling through the ground. He hoped it wasn't a prelude to an earthquake, this was Japan after all, never thought his unit would even end up here.

He frowned, there seemed to be vehicles approaching from both sides of them, no telling of what nature, by now the local military forces should be arriving anyhow. Hopefully that Drop-pod would contain something useful, the DIGS unit they were working with had signalled they were on top of it.

_What are those blasted motes floating in the air, passing overhead?_

"Sergeant!" A voice shouted. He turned, it was that Thomas from DATS, the local equivalent to DIGS apparently.

"What is it?"

"Sir, I recommend you and your troops withdraw back onto the hillside - there's an excellent chance that the powerful Digimon we were fighting earlier could re-form. In our present state, DATS and our allies will not be able to do much to oppose it."

"The really big one?" asked the Sergeant.

"That's correct sir, and pardon me, but I'm not sure you and your troops would be able to do much to it either."

"Although I don't disagree with you, we probably can manage much more than you think," grinned Dalton.

The sharp, distinctive crack of a cannon was heard as one of the remaining enemy's exploded. Their rag-tag group put up a little cheer. Then more projectiles began to fly, from the other side of the field, all across its length.

"Besides," continued Sgt. Dalton, as he crouched low like everyone else. "It really does seem to be about the right time to get to a better position regardless. Have your folks help us carry some gear, will you?"

"No problem."

A burst of light flared brilliantly, albeit briefly, nearby, leaving another tank present on the field. The new arrival stopped by the most damaged tank as the pair was joined by the quad tread variant/

"If you'll excuse me I have to go talk to my superior," Dalton said, eying this new development. "If you need anything just talk to one of my Corporals, you've already met one of them I believe."

"Dad!" shouted Petra, as she clambered out of the commander's hatch, and across the turret's top before hopping to the ground. As she approached Ferdy, her father's command tank, the camera lens on the Heavy Machinegun mount eyed her briefly, before returning to a forward position, evidently satisfied by her Friend or Enemy ID tag. She clambered up Ferdy's side, before mounting the turret, as expected, the hatch was fastened shut. As she pointed her SmartComm. device at one of the IR ports, the sync light turned green. "Dad, it's me Petra, open up! Are you alright?"

"I'm sorry Lt." replied Ferdy, "but your father is incapacitated at the moment. I will open the loader's hatch so you can confirm his state." With a click, the other hatch opened.

"Ferdy, what happened?" Lt. Brinsky asked as she slid into the turret."

"I was hit by a high power laser and several AP rounds of various types and calibers. One hit the turret as I was stopping, the force caused the commander to get knocked about; the blunt force combined with what appears to be PTSD seems to have knocked him out."

She patted down her father's body before breaking out a hot/cold compression pack and wrapping it to the large bruise on his head with some tape. "He seems fine," announced Petra, "what's the situation?"

"We are supporting Allies against various threats, the majority are comprised of digital based entities assuming corporal form via what appears to be Quantum Projection. However, some of the enemy appears to have gained control of conventional JSDF ground vehicles, while others seemed to have merged with other units."

"JSDF?" Asked Petra, "not JDF?"

"That is correct, this is the year 2009 in a reality parallel to ours, before the JSDF amended its name to JDF. At the moment it appears that the enemy is preparing to make a final push."

"The enemy's making a move on," crackled a voice over the comm, as if the universe itself was supporting Ferdy's prediction. "What's the orders?"

"Lt., as the highest ranking officer on site, you are now in command of the platoon and the rest of our forces on the field."

"Affirmative," was Petra's terse reply. "Ferdy, go assume a position in the rear to neutralize the enemy that is harassing our force over there as you see fit. I'm going to trade places and transfer over to Mac."

"Affirmative Lt." replied the tank.

As she popped out of the hatch, she was delightfully surprised to see Mac, her normal mount, pulled up next to Ferdy. "Slight change of plans folks," she announced to the rest of the platoon over the Comnet. "Staff Sgt. Donnellan is it?" she asked, "you'll be transferring to command of Mike while I move to Mac."

"Understood," came the reply as Mac's hatch popped open and its interim commander hoppen out, and jumped off the engine deck on the way to Mike. The tanks were close enough that Petra simply jumped onto Mac's turret as Ferdy's loader's hatch slid shut and the tank rolled off.

"StatRep," said Petra as she slid into Mac's commander's hatch, her commander's seat.

"5 rounds of APDSFS have been expended, 15 rounds remain plus 5 HE and 2 Heavy APCR rounds. Pintle mount ammo at 75%, 3 smoke grenades have been discharged and I have taken minor damage to my front right sponson, lowering its engine output by 10%. Both unidentified forces seem to be identical in composition, a platoon of Type 10 and Type 90 MBT's each. The ones controlled by the enemy have likely had their systems upgraded."

"Sgt. Dalton to Lt. Brinsky, over." prompted the ComNet.

"This is Lt. Brinsky, what is it Sgt.?" replied Petra.

"We seem to be getting flanked, and our allies confirm that one of the forces is friendly, we are still unsure as to which one it is, but it'll presumably be the one that the DigI embedded Gnoll's will begin to gather towards. I'm withdrawing my squad to the hillside to minimize our profile to the enemy."

"Understood Sgt., we're working on it at this end too. Any idea what this odd fog is?"

"We have been advised that it is a powerful enemy unit attempting to reform its body, news from the attached DIG's unit is our allies should be able to counter it soon. Lt. I'm going to direct one of our impromptu advisors to your channel, between them and your command unit, you'll probably get a better explanation of some of the details that I can provide." Sgt. Dalton paused before continuing, "Standing orders are to limit their knowledge of the Bolo's and their true nature as much as necessary. Dalton out."

As the transmission ended, Petra slipped the neural lace on, heightening her sense of awareness of the battlefield. She shook her head, _it figured that DIG's would have gotten involved in it somehow, ever since they, DigI and human alike, had met during the siege of Barsoom, there had been an immutable bond that had tied them together. After all, she and Mac were technically members of that unit indefinitely, but attached to another unit._

Commander, Mac spoke through the link, our allies are used to DigI partners that do not require frames.

Petra nodded, and through the link between them it was known that Ferdy had told her that much at least.

"This is Thomas H. Norstein of the Digital Accident and Tactics Squad..."

* * *

><p>"Critical Damage," rang the voice in his ears as warning lights flashed right in front of his eye. "Power Systems Failing."<p>

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck shitshitshitshitshit_, Tyler grimaced as he kept trying to re-boot the system, hoping it might bypass the damage, but to no avail. He heard a large object rolling, clanking towards him, but he forced himself to breathe slowly and remain calm. _A little help would be nice!_ He flashed into the synaptic connection with his partner.

_Munitions Depleted, Heavily Engage; will arrive, aid brother imbued ASAP, _came the response as Len continued, _Ally disposition unsure advancing. Unit of the Line enroute? Battle Climax arriving soon._

_Not soon enough, _frowned Tyler's reply.

"To be fair, you have made things rather difficult for us," said a voice.

Tyler looked up, face to face with the gaping mouth of a howitzer, and the heavy weapons variant. Perched on the barrel was what appeared to be a cyborg owl. Aurumon - Armored Champion - Bird|Virus Type, read the text on his HUD as the suit's optical systems working in tandem with his Smart Device to analyze the creature in front of him.

The bird continued, "If you manage to talk that partner of yours into ceasing his foolish resistance, we'll not harm a hair on your comrades heads." The light glinted off the owl's eye goggles as they stared Tyler right in the eye. "You have a choice Lancer," it said, "listen to reason and you can both escape intact."

Tyler struggled to lift himself upright, the only other thought in his head being _thank god the plasma containment system has a separate power loop. If I throw that so it detonates I might be able to get rid of this guy._"Never," he declared, snarling and returning his foe's glare. "Not after what your backers did to my planet, my home." _So many of my classmates and peers, gone._

"So be it," the owl said impassively.

He was moving, down and forward as a din overwhelmed his senses - a glare, an explosive thud, the rumbling of an engine, and a crash.

Engaging hostile units to relieve threat to Lancer Donnellan. Read the message from Ferdy.β-343, Bolo Unit of the Line.

* * *

><p>Scan Complete, announced the network, disengaging restrictive locks.<p>

"Finally!" Exclaimed Hrownamon.

"It's about friggin time!" agreed Laavi, as the isolated contingent let their partner's loose with a flash.

There was a malevolent shape now lurking behind the cloud of data, and the flight of projectiles shrieked through the air as the tanks began to engage one another in combat. The light from his digivice woke Marcus, who jolted to alertness.

"Boss, calm down, you're oka-" began Agumon, only to be drowned out by Marcus' paranoia and fighting instincts.

"Who the fuck are you people!?" the bellicose young man shouted at the troops around him.

"The hell did he just say?" Enfant eyed DeAvino.

"I'm pretty sure a translation is un-needed to understand that." snorted DeAvino.

Yoshino looked over her shoulder to see what the big hubbub was all about. "Of h for goodness sake..." she fumed, rubbing her head in frustration. _I take my eyes off him for one minute..._ "Marcus! Stop making a scene - we've still got more important matters on hand!" she angrily pointed to the ambiguous figure that could only be a reformed Machinedramon. Strangely enough, Marcus, who was pinned down and struggling with two of the soldiers, complied without a peep.

Agumon merely sighed.

"The others say they'll be on their way shortly," Thomas informed his companions. "Until then we need to try and keep the enemy distracted, whittle down his defences and ability to concentrate."

"Sounds fine to us," nodded Laavy, grinning, while her partner snorted. "We just want to bash some heads!"

"Any word on what's keeping them?" asked Yoshino.

"Not much," Thomas shook his head, "apparently some enemies snuck up near their position that they need to mop up first."

* * *

><p>"Much better!" piped Veemon, "not that a little break isn't nice every once in a while, but it was beginning to get a little cramped in there. Besides, we've still got a job to do!"<p>

"Right," nodded Davis as he brought up his digivice, "let's show them what for!"

As the impromptu group once again assembled, they poked forth their heads from their refuge to see a welcome face.

"Keenan!" shouted Joey as his partner regained her higher form. "You're certainly a sight for sore eyes!"

"What is going on?" asked the youth, wearing a troubled expression. "There was a powerful storm in the Digital World that made getting back here difficult, the digimon were very distraught. Commander Sampson said there might not be much time and to head on over here."

"I wish I could give you a simple answer at the moment, but-" began Dan.

"But what?" asked Crowmon.

"I'm not sure there is one," replied Dan as he tried to take in the jolt to his senses. THe field near the DIG's LAV, which had previously gone untouched by the battle, had now become scarred itself. There was smoke and flames that accompanied the wrecks of what Dan's digivice was sensing as Digimon. _But that couldn't be possible, could it? Digimon either burst into data or reverted into an egg when totally defeated. _The thought seemed to flow through everyone's heads as their eyes were drawn to the scenes epicenter. At the fields further end stood a biomerged BlackWarGreymon silhouetted by a crashed ship. Closer, was a heavily damaged tank ground into the largest piece of wreckage, which like the rest of them looked considerably more anthropomorphic than the tank. Near this was a stocky mechanoid figure with wolfish features, emerging from what seemed to be its kill.

"Alot here doesn't feel natural," growled Keenan while his partner's feathers ruffled and puffed out. "Brings back bad memories."

"Reiji!?" Dan called out to the BlackWarGreymon. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask the same," boomed the tall armor clad digimon. "Although it seems you and your adventures have made an impact once again. Can't say we can complain about the redecorating though, even though the scale seems a bit out of whack. It seems your knack for making friends in far away places has stayed the same, though this one wouldn't properly register in my scanner even before it evolved." The figure he pointed to ignored him completely, it walked over to the tank and began to pull pieces of wreckage away from it.

"Dan, is your Digivice getting this too?" nudged Robert, "It's picking up an anomalous readings similar to that other guy, and identifies as..."  
>"Integrated Composite Lancer Warg Dragoon callsign 'Wolfsbane'," Davis read before pausing. "Wasn't that the callsign of that guy Tyler and his odd partner Len who left to join the battle earlier?"<p>

"Looks like a biomerge of some sorts," said Dan. "It's certainly not a normal biomerge; we've seen a lot of things before, but not quite like this before - huh Beta?" he looked at his partner. "Does Armored Champion/Ultimate seem about right to you?" he asked.

"I'd have to agree with you on both parts there," the amphibian nodded.

The mechanoid wolf man frowned, "main communications array damaged, not good," he muttered as he examined the tank.

"Well now that's been done, might as well see what else there is to take care of," the turned around. "It was interesting to meet you," he said to the wolf-man, "Care to join us?"

"I will join you momentarily," Wolfsbane replied, "but first I must attend to our comrades, we cannot leave others behind - it might take a bit as Unit FRD's only crew was KO'd shortly before its arrival, and must resort to audio-communication due to battle damage."

"You're making no sense man," exclaimed Jermaine, "just pull the the crew out of there and get going! What good would talking to the tank do if the crew's knocked out? Tankdramon can help you move it if needed." THe teen offered, indicating his recently re-digivolved partner.

"We cannot leave anyone behind," Wolfsbane simply restated.

"What's the problem?" snorted the tall dragon mon, "it's not like the tank's alive is it?"

The wolfman stopped and gazed at Reiji's biomerged form with what one could only assume was ire, before warily surveying his surroundings.

"You bastards," Keenan's face contorted into a snarl, "I just got here and already I cannot stand your sight - if you have such affronts to Digimon, you can't be too far off from that monster Kurata!"

Dan looked to Keenan's partner, expecting him to fulfill his usual role as the boy's voice of reason, only to see him lift into the air.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" shouted Betamon.

"Crowmon shook his head, "much about this is very troublesome, they cannot come from any place in the digital plane I know of, and from my service with Merukimon and many travels, I know of many, many places," he let out a shriek, "but it is much more than simply that, their very being - down to the code feels foreign, theses beings were made to wage war, and nothing can hide that fact."

Wolfsbane's posture grew tense as he assumed a defensive stance, "A Bolo is a DigI and a Digimon is a DigI, but one does not necessitate the other," his robotic eyes stared blankly at the group.

"What the hell does that make you then?!" shouted Davis.

"I am a Warg," spoke a singular voice from the wolfman, "so normally, I wouldn't necessarily be considered either, although as things go, I would be closer to the latter than the former," the metal face grinned slightly, "but because I am a Dynamic Intelligence, I can be both should the need arise."

"We do not want to fight you," continued Wolfsbane, his voice booming in composite harmonics once again, "but will defend us and our comrades if provoked; frankly it'd be best not to waste your time on this irrelevancy that you are mistakenly alarmed over, and deal with the larger threat on yonder battlefield."

"I don't know," sprang in Reiji as his voice drew closer, "I'm really game either way."

Wolfsbane eyed his would be opponents as they hovered nearby. Without any sign of intimidation whatsoever, he turned back to the tank. "Ferdy," continue to take the Colonel to safety - I do believe this fight - though aimed at you, would be improper for a Bolo Unit of the Line to engage in."

"Affirmative Composite Unit Wolfsbane," Ferdy replied as it began to back up slowly, grinding over debris, and the camera on its pintle gun mount swiveled around. "I will withdraw and would cover you with some smoke, but that would further befuddle the justification of your resistance. Were he conscious, the commander would likely also have me ask you to keep an eye on Petra."

"We're much obliged Ferdy, we cannot thank you enough for what you and your kind have accomplished," nodded Wolfsbane. "As always, we'll help Petra if she needs it, when together with Mac the two of them tend to make a formidable force after all."

"Aww shit," said Dan as he turned away from the scene and nodded to his partner. "Let's get going so we can stop this before it gets too serious."

"Mm-hm," the amphibian simply replied.

"What about the rest of us?" asked Joey as Jermaine stood by him in support.

"We should go and deal with the big fight that still going on down there, Thomas and DATS should be able to help us out again when we run into trouble," Robert answered his younger brother.

"Try and keep them informed if you can," Dan called after the other leader as he began to head towards the signal of Thomas's digivice, "but don't let them over-react, whatever these Bolo's are, they've helped us out alot!"

"Will do," the other young adult responded.

"Alright," muttered Dan as he gripped his digivice. "Let's do this Beta!"

"Right!" Betamon nodded in reply.

Betamon biomerge too... Bellerophomon!

The green, iron clad legionnaire stopped, puzzled for a moment before carrying on, he could have sworn that he'd heard someone chuckle, but from nowhere, and no-one around them.  
>The wolfman, instinctively reached for his sidearms, he'd prefer to use his rifle, but as this seemed destined to become a close quarters fight, it wouldn't be the optimal solution unless he'd have more room. So out came the short sword from its sheath on the left, and the heavy pistol from the holster on his right. His foes were going to try and catch him in a vise.<p>

"Savage Emperor!" Screeched the 3 legged crow as it dived, the fore claws began to glow with radiating energy.

Metal clashed as his sword arm came into contact with the fearsome talons - Len and Tyler bit through the pain and parried it, pushing up and reflecting the bird's blow. A crack of his revolver struck it as it passed over him. Now things would be much simpler, both of his enemies were on one side of him, or at least it should be - the dragon man was rushing straight at him. He was only able to get off one more shot before he had to brace himself. As blade met claw, he was pushed back digging a furrow into the ground.

"Not too shabby," the BlackWargreymon said, " that actually stung a bit."

Wolfsbane pushed his strength through the blade, forcing it downward as he and his opponent shoved off from one another. He loosed another shot, hitting his foe right under the kneecap, but he wasn't able to follow through with another attack, for the great bird was streaking towards him again. Two balls of energy slammed into his torso just as he turned in time to dodge the talons that raked through the air.

"I can tell that you're no stranger to a fight," chuckled the dragon man, "but I do believe you to be a leap out of your league - no one will blame you if this intensity forces your hand and makes you yield."

"Not on this foreign shore," barked their (his?) inner wolf in reply, "we have seen worse, far worse in the packed canyons and winding sands and dunes." He propped himself up, a rifle suddenly in his hands to replace the revolver. "I'll tell you what I told that bastard of an owl: we won't let the unit down," he slipped the sword on, mounting it as a bayonet. He suddenly jerked left, _movement from behind!_ their senses and instincts screamed, but this armor clad figure stopped, planting itself between the feuding parties.

"I think that's about enough," declared Bellerophamon. "Clearly the subject that spurned this little brawl warrants further discussion, but simply from what I've seen so far, these visitors are good people, and whatever societal differences there are between us and wherever they come from, they mean only to take responsibility for an issue and land us some aid to rectify it." The centurion turned, "Keenan, it's understandable that you're upset, but you missed their arrival and haven't really gotten enough time to know them. In all likelihood, half of the reason that they did not inform us of this matter was that they felt we would misunderstand and react badly to it." The growing boy was obviously still angry, by the expression on his face, but willing enough to let the matter lie for now. Bellerephamon turned away with a nod, and glared at the BlackWarGreymon for a moment, or rather Reiji, its human component. "Now then, can we all agree to move on?" he asked after the pause.

The wolf man chuckled before breaking out into a short howl of laughter, earning the puzzlement of the other three. "Sorry about that, it's nothing personal you see," he explained, lowering his weapon. "Merely ironies you are unaware of, as the universe seems quite pleased with such things, not least of which is a Roman, a Legionnaire, no less, speaking of peace. A for the being of which we speak of, as the story goes, they were first brought forth to return nobility and incorrigible justice upon the field of battle, into the greatest war Earth had ever seen, such that atrocities would be dispersed from the throngs of civilization and violent hatred would grow to an end, or so the Old Man said. We cannot help but, by large, venerate the Bolo's, for in their mission they have performed well, and with courage irrefutable; but as the whispers tell, simultaneously, we cannot help but feel guilt at some level, for making a being that excels in war, destruction and strategic mastery, even when reluctant. But more stories for another time, yes? I can forgive you knowing how difficult it may be for you to possible understand." He looked to the sky, and blinked, from the shapes deep at the edge of the heavens, where sky met void, it looked as if something was falling, and a transmission seemed poised to leap across their secure and encrypted ComNet.

* * *

><p>The field was churning, the roar that encompassed it was deafening and at a giant, all eyes turned as at it creatures again leapt poised to strike.<p>

"I don't know about you," cackled Machinedramon, "but I feel great, fresh and good as new! better even!" his emotionless steel face seemed to hid a grin. "Destruction, return to sender!" he shouted as the cannons glowed brightly, throwing off a torrent of waste heat as they sent gunfire sweeping towards the other digimon.

It was a close scrape, but Sergeant Dalton let out a little sigh of relief as their allies managed to dodge the massive blast to retaliate in kind. "I do believe it's high about time to make a bit more of a contribution to this melee," observed the Sergeant with a slight grin, "open fire with the AMR, let's see if we can blind Lazarus over there!" he turned his head over his shoulder, "DeAvino! You may fire the Gustav at will!"

"Roger, packing iron," responded Corporal Walker as he primed the large rifle. He squeezed the trigger, there was a crack as the capacitors discharged, sending the tungsten tipped, teflon coated sliver of iron that was the bullet, out of the barrel at 3.5 kilometers per second. The HEAT warhead that Private DeAvino fired, on the other hand, left the barrel of the the 84mm recoilless launcher atop its rocket at a little over 250 meters per second, hitting the mechanical monstrosity dead in the chest.

Machinedramon roared as he lost the majority of the optical sensors on the left side of his face. DeAvino shook her head, "not worth it," she said to Enfant, "only dinged it and tore up the armor a little, besides..." with a satisfying clunk the loader slid the round in, and DeAvino pointed the Gustav's maw at the tank battle. "It seems we're not doing too well over there."

Petra grimaced, their forces were neck and neck with that of the enemy. The Japanese had lost two Type 90's and one of their Type 10's looked practically out of commission. Freddy, the second in command of the unit solely due to the fact that his current commander was not the commanding officer, was pinned, nearly immobile, a result of multiple hits to his flank, and barely moving. Mac and Mike had received considerable damage as well, just not as extensive. Meanwhile, only two of the enemy seemed to be out of the fight for good, while another seemed about ready to join them, its glacis plate beginning to shear from the impacts. The odd Gnolls that the enemy was using were using the opportunity to try and flank them, not all of them had yet met their fate, so Petra had the platoon target them whenever a good opportunity arose; thus far, at least 4 had been destroyed. Mac and Mike were currently trying their best to leapfrog their way onto the enemy's right flank, and so far it was proving to be only moderately successful at that. They'd managed to take only a potshot at the hulking mass that Mac identified as Machinedramon, but he'd had to move on to other concerns before its effect could be analyzed.

"Re-engaging Commander," announced Mac punctually as he slowed down his left treads, swinging his bulk in that direction before jolting to a stop.

"Hit this one on the left and this one on the right," she indicated on the screen, the former perpendicular to them at about a 60 degree angle, and the latter arranged head on at a 10 degree angle off their right. The 5in (100-127mm) Hellbore Mk. I Variable Shift Cannon/Multiple Form Flow Weapons System roared once, then twice as the turret traversed slightly to the right, each time bucking the 62.5 metric ton tank, highlighting the importance of ear-pro. Mac began to back up just as Mike pulled forward into a fighting position, perfectly on time for his contribution. As Petra lurched forward with the rest of Mac's mass, a notice popped up, blaring, on the ComNet.

WARNING! it declared Hell-Lance Strike Inbound, Impact in T-45s!

"I suggest bracing yourself Commander," cautioned Mac "We're close enough for the shock wave to still buffet us severely."

Onscreen, a streak roared down from the heavens, its tail a turquoise ribbon interspersed with small blossoming spheres.

"Back up and hit the dirt if you value your life, and keep your damn eyes closed if you don't want to go blind!" bellowed Sgt. Dalton, unusually for his demeanor. No one challenged that order, as an order it was, and Yoshino sighed with relief, as the last thing she saw in her vision was Lilamon growing larger. There was a roar and a loud thud that rumbled through her bones, it occurred simultaneously with an intense flash and a jolt of pressure immense enough to shove her into the grass. She slowly pried open her eyes, squinting at the expanding dome of bright, pale blue light, and the turquoise tail of energy that bisected it at the top, which itself had quickly dissipating spheres and expanding radii space at regular intervals all down its length. Machinedramon was nowhere in sight, but the prominent silhouette of a single figure still lurked near where he was, outlined by the radiant light. She heard one of the soldier gasp as a faceplate flipped down and locked tight, as their forms became bright before disappearing entirely to wherever they came from. She blinked before finally opening her mouth, staring at the immense spectacle before her. "Thomas, that's fucking nuke isn't it?"

"Combined with an orbital kinetic and energy beam weapon strike evidently guessing by the shock of the impact," the young intellectual slowly replied, "but from its color and the data from my geiger counter reading the radiation levels in the safe zone, I'd have to say that there was definitely a tactical clean fusion bomb in there." He took a deep breath and sighed, "the evidence is irrefutable," he said, "those folks aren't just from another reality, they're from a future one as well."


	10. Epilogue

Epilogue

From Whence? To Whence?

Excerpt from the DATS Preliminary After Action Report

In retrospect, given the technologies observed that the subjects expressed ease and familiarity with, it is quite obvious why Daneel and his associates from Infinity and otherwise chose to keep us in the dark, particularly regarding their sentient tanks or "Bolo's" given our recent history with the Digital World over such matters. Combining what we observed and witnessed with the notes on the one object left behind, the "CompuBall", results in an otherwise hazy picture becoming clearer. To prevent a rise of chaotic conflict and the destabilization of their dimensional boundaries, which Daneel seems to attribute with the entropy that accompanies with the use of certain technologies, particularly as they intersect with that of "relics of ancient powers" the aptly named agency, Infinity, sought to embrace a mere moment of madness to prevent it from grabbing hold for good; evidently, much strife remains from wherever and whence they come from. Analysis is ongoing, but suggest, as originally suggested and alluded to, a location out of the most frequently traversed areas of the plains that bind the Digital Worlds. The spherical navigational model we discovered, combined with our own data, indicates this to be somewhere Up-Plane in the Northern Quadrant. We expect new information as soon as the strengthened away team returns from a scouting trip in the Digital World to contact the Royal Knights and other such high authorities for relevant data as well as to survey the extent of the damage there.


End file.
